Star of Davida

Tickled Pink

2012-01-29T17:41:00.001-05:00

I love the color pink. I alwayshave loved pink, and don’t anticipate that I’ll ever stop loving pink. As amatter of fact, I’m wearing pink as I write this. It’s just a bright, happycolor. My favorite color is purple (as you can probably infer based on the blogcolor scheme), but pink is certainly a very close second. My friends have always thought it was a little weird that I'm so into pink, since I just don't seem the type, but I really love the color. So sue me.

I volunteer at the children’sservice at my synagogue on Shabbat (the Sabbath). Every week, the kidswalk around with kid-sized Torahs, some of which are stuffed toys. There’s onlyone pink one. I feel like I should mention that this pink Torah is about twice my age, very faded, a little corroded looking, and has been sewed more times than I can remember to keep the stuffing from falling out. The other stuffed Torahs (that only come in red, yellow, blue, and purple) were bought in the past few years, so they all look new and are in pretty good condition. Despite the clear quality disparity, all hell breaks loose every Shabbat when thelittle girls come running to grab the pink Torah before anyone else can catch up.And yes, innumerable tears have been shed and many fights have ensued over thisissue.

The obsession over the pink Torahhas been going on for a while now, and it’s really been bothering me. I knowit’s not the girls’ fault that they love pink, since they’re being flooded bypink pink pink on a daily basis by the media. Like, a while ago, I was at afriend’s house, and we were watching the Disney movie Princess ProtectionProgram with her youngest sister. As I stated previously, I love pink, but the movie’s insistence thatprincesses have to have lots and lots of pink things was getting me nauseated.I know that my own love of pink is because society has conditioned me, apossessor of ovaries, to like the color. It’s nobody’s fault but the media, andsociety for allowing it.

Is it really a big deal, though?If girls love pink, does it matter so much? I think it does, not so muchbecause of the specifics of the matter, but because of the concept. When onegender is conditioned to prefer one thing to another, it becomes the propertyof that gender, not to be enjoyed by the other. Pink is liked by girls, whichmakes it girly; if it’s girly, boys who like it are considered effeminate. Boyslike cars, so that’s really boyish; if it’s boyish, girls who like it aretomboys. It separates the genders, making a dichotomy between the two.

(And I’d like to point out that girlydoesn’t have any real male equivalent. I used boyish in the aboveparagraph for lack of a better word, but it doesn’t have the rightconnotation.)

When the girls at my synagoguefight over the pink Torah, they create their own little world, excluding theboys. If a boy naturally likes pink, it’s too bad for them - it’s girly.

One Shabbat quite a while ago,a boy actually asked for the pink Torah. It had already been snapped up by oneof the girls, but it really made me happy that society and his parents hadn’tyet conditioned him not to like pink. While he hasn’t asked for the pink Torah again,I hope he still wants it.

Star of Davida Interviews Liz Rich

2012-01-25T20:06:00.002-05:00

In the 1950s and 60s, being a stewardess (called flight attendant since the 1970s) was one of the most glamorous jobs open to women. The job was far from easy: they had to remain single, adhere to strict dress rules, and maintain a certain weight. Once they reached their early thirties, they had to retire. This large staff turnover (about 40%) was to the benefit the airlines, since few flight attendants managed to earn enough seniority to qualify for benefits. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, flight attendants tried to fight against these unfair policies, but were largely unsuccessful; they filed about 100 complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in its first year of operation, but it took several months until they got so much as a hearing. Due to NOW's efforts and the amazing dedication of hundreds of flight attendants, the EEOC eventually found that the airlines’ policies towards flight attendants counted as sex discrimination and had to stop. Star of Davida had the honor of interviewing Liz Rich, who was a flight attendant during this era.

What airline did you work for?

I worked for TWA [Trans World Airlines].

That doesn’t exist anymore,right?

Right. It was bought by American Airlines,so we were luckier than Pan Am people who didn’t get anything. [Pan Am declaredbankruptcy in 1991.]

What years did you work there?

1963-1987.

Why did you decide to become aflight attendant in the first place?

I had gone to Europeand worked running service clubs for the Air Force. When I came back to New York, I got a job screening Fulbright applicants, butI wanted to travel because I missed Europe. Onthe money I was making I couldn’t do that, so I went and applied to become astewardess then.

How did you get involved inthe fight against the airline’s discriminatory policies towards stewardesses?

Because of the new anti-discriminationlaws that were being passed in the late 1960s, they couldn’t discriminateagainst men or women in hiring anymore, that’s when we started hiring men tojobs. When I got hired I had to sign a paper that said I would retire at 35,and that was no longer legal. People just kept on working, I have friends whoare still flying at 70.

What other activism were youinvolved with in the skies?

In 1972 we founded Stewardessesfor Women’s Rights, during the feminist movement, because we were fighting againstsexist ads and health and safety issues. One issue was carrying radioactivematerial on passenger planes, we wanted them to stop doing that so we worebadges that would test radiation.

We also had an office in Rockefeller Center which we got in a very funny way.One of our members and founders had a friend who was a lawyer for Ross Perot,and he had bought an investment banking firm called duPont, Glore Forgan and Co. Hethought he could show Wall Street how to do it right and they made sure hefailed, so he was left with all these offices when duPont went out of business.They had a big building on Wall Street they waned to get rid of but they wererenting it and the landlord wouldn’t let them out of the lease, so we cooked upa scheme with them. DuPont told the landlord that they would rent their officespace to Stewardesses for Women’s Rights, and they were so sexist down therethat the idea of having us in their building horrified them, so they let duPontout of the lease. To pay us back for the favor we did them, duPont gave us a wonderfuloffice for the rest of its lease at Rockefeller Center, 30 Rock. It was agreat office for press conferences, so all the women’s groups came there forpress conferences and we got to know everybody.

Is that how you connected withgroups like NOW?

In those days we got together andgo to know everyone anyway, everything was bubbling up then so there would beparties and everyone would introduce you to everyone else.

Are you familiar with the showPan Am? If so, what are your opinions towards it?

I started watching it and I just foundit so ridiculous. It’s sort of unreal, nothing like what it really was.

We Didn't Survive to be Bullied

2012-01-22T22:35:00.001-05:00

Originally posted at talkinreckless.com by Leah Berkenwald, Editor ofJewesses with Attitude and Online Communications Specialist at theJewish Women's Archive.

Gender-Neutral Speech

2012-01-18T21:03:00.001-05:00

I’m taking AP Psychology thisyear, and so far it’s been a lot of work, but I do enjoy it. As I was doinghomework on language and thinking, I came across some interesting studies aboutthe effect of using gender-neutral speech.

Janet Hyde, a professor ofpsychology and women’s studies at Universityof Wisconsin - Madison, conducted a study in 1984 where sheasked children to finish stories for which she gave them a first line, like“When a kid goes to school, ___ often feels excited on the first day.” When Dr.Hyde used the word he in the blank, almost all of the kids’ stories wereabout boys. When she used he or she, about a third of the stories wereabout girls. This effect is not only present in children, but has also beenseen in similar studies with adolescents and adults.

Allen McConnell and RussellFazio, professors at Miami University and Ohio State University, respectively, did a reallyinteresting 1996 study about using chairman vs. chairperson. Whenthey described ambiguous actions done by a chairman to studyparticipants, they tended to feel that the chairman as assertive andindependent. When McConnell and Fazio described a chairperson’s actions,the study participants felt the chairperson’s personality was warmer and morecaring.

The results of these studies,plus many others that prove that gender-neutral speech does make a difference,aren’t really news to me. I think feminists have understood the importance of usinggender-neutral terminology ever since the 1960s, but it’s always good to knowthat the rest of the world agrees.

In the he vs. he or shestudy that I mentioned, I wonder what the effect would be if the study had alsomonitored what children wrote based on using she or he and just she.Considering the study is almost thirty years old at this point, I also wonderwhat today’s children would write. My conjecture is that the amount of storiesabout girls would go up, but I’d be really interested in seeing such a study.

This brings up another question,though - will it ever be split down the middle? Will children ever be able tovisualize both men and women? This is part of the reason I dislike it whenpeople use only she. In my opinion, it’s just as bad as using he,just more politically correct. He or she has always been the happymedium in my eyes, but now I’m wondering if I should be using she or he.

While this issue isn’t terriblyimportant in the grand scheme of women’s rights, the language we use aboutwomen and men is significant. Based on everything I’ve learned in AP Psych sofar, language greatly impacts how a person thinks and feels. In a 1992 study, N. Dinges and P. Hull showed that bilingual peoplesometimes reveal completely different personalities when taking the samepersonality test in two languages. If our language doesn’t respect women, howcan we expect our future generations to value women’s contributions to theworld?

Star of Davida Interviews Rabbi Yael Buechler

2012-01-16T12:13:00.000-05:00

Nail art has been in existence since ancient times, with Egyptians and Greeks using polish to signify their social class. In today's culture, nail polish is more of a beauty aid than political statement. Rabbi Yael Buechler took this trend and created Midrash Manicures, blending traditional Torah study with nail painting. Star of Davida had the honor of interviewing her about this innovative program.

What inspired you to become a rabbi?

Since early childhood, my dream was to become a rabbi. Myfather is the rabbi of a large Conservative synagogue, and I treasured hisdevotion and dedication to our synagogue community. When I was in elementaryschool, I even tried to emulate some of his ritual roles by performing babynamings and weddings for my pet guinea pigs (he handled the funerals). Duringmy high school years and college years, I deepened my observances andcommitments to traditional egalitarian Judaism. I came to realize that theJewish community had gaps in positive female role models for my generation. Alltoo often it was perceived among my generation that being egalitarian andfemale is “not cool.” I wanted to change that perception through example.I know that I am not alone in this mission and I have met many inspiringcolleagues who transform the image of the rabbinate daily – they are amazingrabbis – who happen to be female.

Rebecca Alpert, one of the first Reconstructionist womanrabbis, said she viewed entering the rabbinate as a feminist act, while otherof her contemporaries felt it was just neutral. To which school of thought doyou belong, if either?

I wanted to become a rabbi before I had even heard the term feminist.In my personal journey, entering the rabbinate was a decision based on mypassions, not my gender. I certainly wanted to be a role model for the nextgeneration of Jewish women, but my desire to go to rabbinical school stemmedfrom my passion for Jewish living, Jewish learning, and transmitting Jewishvalues. As I have begun to encounter the unique contributions that women bringto the rabbinate, I can better appreciate Rabbi Alpert’s perspective. As arabbi, I have come to value the perspective and programs that I can bring tocommunities given my gender, not despite my gender.

Why did you decide to go into teaching?

Part of what attracted me to the rabbinate is that it wouldafford me the opportunity to be an educator in many exciting and differentcapacities, whether in a congregation, camp, non-profit organization, hospital,or school. I certainly explored all of those options while in rabbinicalschool, and last year, I found a wonderful fit at the Solomon Schechter Schoolof Westchester. I know that wherever I serve as a rabbi, I will bring mypassion for cutting edge and engaging experiential education to mycommunity. Having been a student at a Schechter on Long Island, and with fond memories of my inspiring mentors throughoutthose years, it is truly incredible for me to be able to give back to theSchechter network and hopefully inspire others into the paths of their Jewishjourneys through creative portals such as Midrash Manicures.

What motivated you to create the Midrash Manicuresprogram? It seems to be a very random pairing.

My middle school social studies teacher, Mrs. Goldstein, wasa powerful mentor in my life. While I certainly enjoyed learning about ancient Egypt, Mrs.Goldstein also taught me about the values of patience, sensitivity, andfostering community. I could not help but notice that each week Mrs. Goldsteincame to class with a new professionally-done manicure. She inspired me to beginto paint my own nails. My personal nail painting was initially quite a mess,but with time and patience, I mastered the basics of applying coats of onecolor. I then began to experiment with more intricate designs such as heartsand smiley faces.

Unfortunately my mentorship with Mrs. Goldstein was cutshort as Mrs. Goldstein had been diagnosed with a rapidly growing cancer thatultimately took her life in February of 2001, in my sophomore year of highschool. To honor her memory, and the impact that she had on me and so manyother students, I continued to paint my nails each week themed for holidays andspecial events.

When I entered Brandeis University, I began tostudy the weekly Torah portion on a much higher level and incorporate thethemes of the parasha into my weekly manicure. Since then, MidrashManicures has been an exciting weekly part of my learning routine and creativeinterpretation of Torah. This past July, I launched MidrashManicures.com inhopes to introduce the world to this creative form of Jewish learning. I alsowas gifted with the opportunity at the Solomon Schechter School of Westchesterto offer a Midrash Manicures Club as an elective at in my role as theCoordinator of Student Life.

I love how Midrash Manicures really epitomizes howeverything secular can be turned into something religious. When you establishedthe program, did you have this in mind?

Since I have been doing themed manicures since before I knewanything about the nail art industry, it really did not occur to me that I wasturning something secular into something religious. I always enjoyed paintingmy nails, and I really enjoyed studying the parasha of the week, so thecombination of the two seemed like a natural step in my own Jewish journey. Theoverwhelming response to Midrash Manicures has demonstrated to me the power ofadding our own personal and creative touches to Judaism and to religion atlarge. There are now people around the Jewish world, across the streams ofJewish observances, who visit MidrashManicures.com each week in order to beinspired in their Torah learning as they create their personal MidrashManicures.

There’s been a lot of conversation about how MidrashManicures boxes girls into traditional femininity. Do you have a response tothis?

I created Midrash Manicures with the intent that this wouldbe a tool and skill set for student-centered learning. The Midrash ManicuresClub, for example, gives students who enjoy painting their nails a venue inwhich they can infuse that activity with meaningful Torah study. There areplenty of other ways that women can express themselves and learn about Judaism.My hope is that Midrash Manicures inspires women to find ways their own ways toexpress themselves Jewishly, be it through art, music, or othermediums.

Do you have any words of inspiration for the nextgeneration of Jewish girls?

It is up to you, the next generation of Jewish women, tobridge your passions with Jewish learning, so that you can take hold ofJudaism. The future of Judaism rests in our hands! Let’s paint them wisely.

It's Not Just Marie Curie

2012-01-12T14:00:00.001-05:00

I'm sorry for the cop-out of a post today, but I have midterms this week. :) I hope you enjoyed the above cop-out, and for further reading material, make sure to check out the Resources page and my Blogroll (both can be found at the left) for other Jewish, feminist, and Jewish feminist articles!

Feminist Dear Blank Please Blanks!

2012-01-09T17:58:00.001-05:00

As I've mentioned before, I'm a great procrastinator, and a particular fan of the website dearblankpleaseblank.com. I thought I'd share a few feminist-themed and Jewish-themed DBPBs I've seen on the site.

Good DBPBs:

Dear women,

Please tell me why you stay with him when you know he treatsyou horribly?

Sincerely, he's not worth it.

Dear guys,

Despite what you think, girls like food just as much as you.

Sincerely, stop staring while I nom my cheeseburger.

Dear people at my school,

Just because I cut my hair does not mean I'm suddenly alesbian.

Sincerely, straight girl who didn't need the hair as much asLocks of Love did.

Dear boys of the world,

Please realize us girls are not all easy, mindless, cheatingsluts... just like you're not all douche bags.

Sincerely, let's be fair?

Dear judgmental people,

Teenage girls who are pregnant didn't get that way all bythemselves.

Sincerely, talk to your sons about safe sex!

Dear Mulan,

Thank you for teaching us that not all women have to besaved by a prince.

Sincerely, doesn't need a guy to be independent.

Dear society,

How have you managed to make girls feel bad for beingvirgins AND losing their virginity?

Sincerely, what do you want from us?!?

Dear men,

It's not PMS... You're just jerk.

Sincerely, ladies.

Dear world,

Please realise that standing up for gay rights does notautomatically make me gay.

Sincerely, straight girl who wants the world to be moreaccepting.

Dear ignorant people,

Men who support feminism are not gay, just like people whosupport animal rights are not animals.

Sincerely, pro-feminist men.

Dear Snow White,

You took an apple from a stranger that made you fall asleep,woke up to a man on top of you and kissing you, then proceeded to call himPrince Charming?

Sincerely, I don't call that charming. I call that rape.

Dear Disney,

You have a white, black, asian, native-american, arab, andeven a ginger princess. How bout a Jew?

Sincerely, feeling left out.

Dear society,

What have you done to make my girlfriend think she isn'tbeautiful?

Sincerely, concerned boyfriend to an anorexic girl.

Dear anorexic little sister,

Every time I hear you step on the scale to weigh yourself, Idie a little more inside.

Sincerely, I love you, please eat something.

Dear Shoppers,

Our sizes include: Small, X-Small, anorexic, Bulimic, andMalnourished.

Sincerely, Abercrombie

Dear construction workers,

Don't get mad when my gay guy friend whistles at you.

Sincerely, now you know how violated and awkward the girlsof the world feel.

Dear boys who whistle at girls,

What? Do you think we're going to sprint over to you, lickyour face and let you pet us?

Sincerely, we're not dogs...

Dear men,

Woman are not birds. whistling at us won't increase yourchances of us mating with you.

Sincerely, women everywhere.

Dear construction workers,

Do you realy think shouting and whistling and leeringactually works?! Has it ever?!

Sincerely, A fed up female

Bad DBPBs:

Dear feminists,

If you want to see men making sandwiches, go to Subway.

Sincerely, anonymous.

Dear bra burning feminists,

Wearing a bra doesn't mean I'm conforming to society'sstandards. I do it because I don't want my DD's touching the floor by the timeI turn 40.

Sincerely, gravity is a b-word.

Dear extreme feminists,

Chilling at home all day, spending time with your kids,people opening doors for you...

Sincerely, it really doesn't sound that bad to me.

Dear feminists,

Please stop ruining masculinity. The rest of us actuallylike men.

Sincerely, old fashioned women.

Dear feminists,

Chivalry is dead... because you killed it.

Sincerely, a woman

Dear feminist professor,

Please wear a bra.

Sincerely, horrified student in the front row

Dear female friends,

You making fun of the size of my chest doesn't hurt myfeelings. I'm actually happy with my small breasts. They don't weigh me downwhen I run, I can wear that swimmer's speedo without a sports bra, I'm lesslikely to get raped, and people actually look at my face when they talk tome.

Sincerely, happy with who I am.

Dear Jersey ShoreCast,

It's called 'Sun Kissed' not 'Dorito raped.'

Sincerely, easy on the tanner.

Dear prostitutes,

If I have sex with you and don't pay, is that rape orshoplifting?

Sincerely, anonymous.

Dear college,

You're all about promoting safe sex and being againstdomestic abuse, yet you rape my wallet.

Sincerely, a very broke college student

Dear Sallie Mae,

Please stop trying to rape me via student loans. I alreadyhave a girlfriend, and she is demanding enough!

Sincerely, UCF graduate

Drinking + Anorexia

2012-01-05T15:32:00.000-05:00

Eating disorders are much toocommon in today’s society: 24 million people in America alone suffer from them, andonly 10% are officially treated. Students are particularly prone to eatingdisorders, as 95% of women who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12and 25, when most people are in school or recently graduated. Unfortunately,there is a new eating disorder trend among women college students calleddrunkorexia.

Identified in a New York Times article in 2008, drunkorexia, an unofficial medical term, is characterized as “adisturbing blend of behaviors: self-imposed starvation or bingeing and purging,combined with alcohol abuse.” Virtually, college and university women arestarving themselves or vomiting their food in order to party at night and drinkup a storm. A University of Missouri study foundthat 1 in 6 women suffer from drunkorexia.

Needless to say, I find thisextremely disturbing on many levels. The medical implications of this must beabsolutely horrendous. Drinking alcohol on an empty stomach is never a goodidea, and I can’t imagine that purposely not ingesting anything but alcohol forany stretch of time can be good for the body.

I think the prevalence ofdrunkorexia (1 in 6! My god, that’s almost 20%!) showcases two big problemsamong today’s young people: peer pressure and eating disorders. Studies haveshown that when a person hangs around with people who abuse drugs, alcohol, andthe like, he or she will copy their behaviors in order to fit in. However, whenhe or she has moved on to another group of friends, he or she will not longerbother with the drugs and alcohol. College campuses, especially sororities andfraternities, are notorious for the wild partying and drugs and alcohol thatcome along with it. As a result, it’s not really so shocking that students wantto drink in order to fit in with their friends.

And when you think about it, it’snot so shocking that the girls who drink often in order to fit in want to cutdown on their calorie intake. Chances are they’re dieting in the first place(91% of college women in one survey reported dieting to lose weight), and whenyou add all of the calories from alcohol, it’s a lot of pressure to stay thin.Enter eating disorder.

Drunkorexics, like other womenwho suffer from eating disorders, show that our society places way too much importanceon how women look, to the point that they feel the need to starve themselves inorder to look good.

Universities need to do somethingabout this growing trend. My suggestions:

Have on-campus free panels discussing the issue to raise awareness.
Train campus medical teams to recognize the signs of drunkorexia.
Distribute brochures and pamphlets to female students about the harmful nature of this lifestyle.
Encourage drunkorexics to seek help if they need it, whether from professors, peers, or feminist outlets on campus.

If schools work hard to deal withthis issue, hopefully it can be kept under control. Drunkorexia is only a manifestationof our society’s ridiculous pressure on women and girls to look a certain way.Until these expectations are abolished, this eating disorder, like every otherone, needs to be handled.

From Unwanted to Anything They Want to Be

2012-01-03T18:24:00.001-05:00

A few months ago in Maharashtra,a district in India,a number of girls changed their names. This is a big deal because the name,Nakusa or Nakushi, means unwanted in Hindi, so these girls decided to changetheir names in order to empower themselves.

Unfortunately, in India, as wellas in many other Eastern cultures, girls are indeed unwanted. (I don’t mean tostereotype or generalize here, since I know that many families value their girlchildren just as much as their boys. However, in general, the culture favorsboys over girls.) As a result, many infant girls are abandoned at birth anddoomed to live a bleak life in an orphanage until (if/when) they’re adopted. Parentswho have access to more advanced medical care will often test their unbornchildren’s sex, and selectively abort based on the results. Consequently, thereare bizarrely low birth rates for girls compared to boys in these countries,and an extreme population gender disparity. In India,there are only 914 girls under the age of six for every 1,000 boys, and Maharashtra has only 883 for every 1,000, one of thelowest rates in the country. Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn,Pulitzer-winning New York Times reporters, estimate that approximately132,000 Indian girls from 0-5 die every year from neglect based on theirgender. Other countries have similar, if not even worse, statistics.

I’ve always found it interestingthat Western feminists view abortion as an integral women’s right, whileEastern feminists are often anti-abortion because of the selective sex abortionissue. I guess it just shows how much culture impacts political and socialadvocacy, that people working for the same overall goal will have totallydifferent viewpoints and methods to attain it based on where they live.

As I’ve said before,I’m into names and the inherent power they hold, so I think they’re reallyimportant. Religiously speaking, Judaism believes that a person’s name reflectshis or her essence. This is why there are few names with outright negativeconnotations in Hebrew. (Some names might have what we think are weird meaningsin today’s world; for example, Leah means cow. In biblical times, thiswas almost surely considered a very nice name because cows were an importantsource of income. Biblical characters whose names are interpreted as meaningbad things, like Nabal, are often nicknames that were given to themthroughout their lives rather than the name their parents gave them at birth.)

I find it sad that these Indiangirls had to go through their early lives being called unwanted, knowingthat in their culture they’re not valued simply because they have ovaries. I’mglad that they were given the opportunity to get rid of their “unwanted” names.(Yeah, sorry for the pun. I had to say it somewhere.)

But really. I know some peoplewill say that names are insignificant and this is a loud of meaningless garbageand the focus should be on more important stuff, like figuring out how to dealwith parents selectively aborting female fetuses. I agree that more attention shouldbe given to life-and-death situations, but I think that every feminist causedeserves at least a little publicity. I hope girls with names that keep themdown all across India willimitate these girls in Maharashtra and take itupon themselves to change their names.

Star of Davida Interviews Maggie Anton

2011-12-29T17:02:00.002-05:00

I understand that you were achemist, which is unusual for a woman of your generation. What inspired you topursue a career in the sciences?

I was always very good in scienceand math in school, as well as enjoying the subjects. And it seemed that therewere many more career opportunities for women there than in other fields.

I was also always intrigued bythe fact that Rashi only had daughters. Do you know why they touched you somuch to write a whole book series about them?

I started studying Talmud in awomen’s Talmud class in early 1990s. Our teacher pointed out that Rashi had nosons, and that his daughters were reputed to be learned and wear tefillin.I was intrigued enough to do some research to see if these legends were true,and what I found inspired me to write about them.

It’s clear from reading thebook that you’re very well-versed in both Torah and Talmud. Was this somethingyou were raised with, or are you self-taught?

I was raised in a secularhousehold, and didn’t start my Jewish studies until I married. I’ve taken manyTorah and Talmud classes with some excellent scholars, but more recently I’vestudied Talmud individually with a hevruta (study-partner).

Based on your books, it seemsthat sex was much more openly discussed in the eleventh century. Is that true?

Sex is certainly openly discussedin the Talmud, and the 11th-12th centuries appears to have been pretty open andtolerant about these matters.

Do you know why Lilith, thereal first woman who was created at the same time as Adam, became such athreatening figure for Jewish women in the Middle Ages?

I think it’s more a matter ofLilith threatening men, although a demon who attacked newborns and theirmothers is common in many medieval and ancient cultures.

In Miriam, many malecharacters are depicted with homosexual leanings. Was “playing the game” reallythat common in Rashi’s era? What about among women?

Homosexuality was at least ascommon in Rashi's time as today, however the desire was considered normalrather than perverse. People discussed the subject much more openly then.Typical of ancient and medieval times, men didn’t seem to care or know whatwomen did.

I had no idea that mohelotexisted before the 21st century. How common was it in the 11th century? Are anymohelot from that era known by name?

None are known to use by name. Itprobably wasn’t too common, but the fact that rabbis complained about it showsthat the practice existed.

In Rachel, the sistersco-write Rashi’s commentary on Tractate Nedarim. Do you think the argumentthat this is true holds water?

We know that Rashi didn’t write “his”commentary on Nedarim, yet strangely the true author's name has beenlost. There are scholars who believe his daughters wrote it, which is why theauthor remained nameless. After a careful study of the text, it does seem tohave a feminine perspective.

Do you think Rashi would behappy to see how women’s education in Talmud and Judaism has proliferated?

Absolutely.

Do you have any other books inthe works?

My next series, Rav Hisda’sDaughter, is set in 3rd-4th century Babylonia,in the household of a Jewish sage as the Talmud is being created. At the sametime Rome, fast becoming a Christian empire,battles Zoroastrian Persiafor world dominance. Against this backdrop, my heroine embarks on the tortuouspath to become an enchantress in the society where the word ‘magic’ originated.The first volume should be out in August 2012.

I read the account of theFirst Crusade in Rachel soon after Leiby Kletzky’s z”l murder, which wasnot such great timing. How do you think the Jewish community has managed tosurvive, despite all of the horrific acts that have occurred in our history?

Being dispersed throughout theworld, Jews could never be destroyed in its entirety. With so much animositydirected against us, we were not able to assimilate easily and tended to staywithin our own communities.

Agunot and Converts

2011-12-27T15:16:00.001-05:00

I’ve been following Heshy Friedat his blog, Frum Satire, for a couple of years at this point.It was actually the first blog I followed on a regular basis. I like Heshybecause he really sees things as they are and calls it like it is. He posted this article a little while ago,equating men who deny their wives a get (divorce papers) and therebymake them into agunot (chained wives) to rabbis who won’t give convertstheir official conversion papers.

At first, I was highly offended bythis, and all prepared to leave a scathing comment on the post. As I beganwriting my response, though, I couldn’t think of any argument to counterHeshy’s. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that agunahisn’t much different than unofficial converts.

In Judaism, how divorce works isthat the husband has to give his wife a get. While this seems sexist andhorrendous today, the law’s original intent was to protect women from quickiedivorces that were popular in the ancient Middle East.(When I say quickie, I mean quickie. In one culture, all a man had to do wasbring his wife outside, say “I divorce you” or something to that effect threetimes, and they would be divorced.) A get gives women a certain amountof money (specified in the marriage papers), as well as other rights. Today’smen have twisted this pro-woman measure, extorting their wives for thousands ofdollars and rights like children’s custody, in order to give a get.Without a get, women are unable to remarry and go on with their lives.As a result, agunah has become a big issue among today’s Jews.

With Orthodox conversion, aperson has to take classes about Judaism for several years. Would-be convertsoften have to travel or move to Israelin this process. Once done, they have to find a rabbi willing to convert them.(For men, this means circumcision and a dip in the mikvah (ritual bath).Women obviously only need to do the mikvah part.) Finding the rabbi isoften extremely difficult; converts like Yisrael Campbell (star of CircumciseMe and husband of prominent Jewish feminist Avital Campbell Hochstein), whohave moved to Israelin order to convert Orthodox, have struggled at this step. While Mr. Campbellfound his rabbi and got his official conversion papers afterwards, many peopleare denied the papers. Without them, even if a person has gone in the mikvahand is a Jew according to halakha (Jewish law), he or she can’t functionas a full Jew, not being able to marry Jewish or have a Jewish child.

So at the end of the day, are agunotand unofficial converts that different? Neither can function as a full Jewwithin society, as neither can get married nor perpetuate the Jewish nationfurther. Unfortunately, both are issues that get too little lip service, letalone action, from people in authority positions who could actually changethem. This lack of accomplishment needs to be altered. Fortunately, there aresome amazing organizations and individuals that are working for that goal.

Agunah Advocates:

Agunah International

JOFA

ORA

Center for Women’s Justice

Conversion Advocates:

Aliza Hausman

Conversion to Judaism Resource Center

National Jewish Outreach Program

Star of Davida Essay Contest: Honorable Mention Jackie O

2011-12-22T20:10:00.000-05:00

What is a woman? One’s perception of femininity matters, for whenever the strength of the feminine spirit is mistaken for a willingness to submit to falsity, power becomes ignorance. Indeed, the significance of gender expression exists in what makes freedom imperative. While humanity possesses intrinsic limitations, its paradox is transformed by faith. The masculine and the feminine exist harmoniously in feminism, as its house is called Mutuality. Delicacy becomes the living, but what presents itself is Patience. Faith in what can be accomplished by the intuition makes all the difference.

Risk-taking as it appears in tradition is one thing; faith in the presence of the spirit is another. Feminism is about ethical empowerment, and being enlightened regarding the causes of the movement has been life-changing for me. Actually, its resounding importance has been clear not only in the grief I have felt for women and minorities in their struggles for equality, but in the hope I am free to have, in the mercy of a higher power. Feminism has done so much for me; it is with gratitude that I have come to realize its accomplishments.

In my heart, discoveries are yet to be made. This is the wonder of faith. Externally, I am inspired by the work of my country’s New Democratic Party. Its recognition of common law relationships as legitimate partnerships, its recognition of the importance of making therapeutic abortion services available, and its recognition of the rights of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community all encompass an approach which resonates with me. The ability to embrace diversity is a trait which speaks to the maternal nature of a masculine God – it is a trait which all can share in. Indeed, I believe that feminism is about empowering all individuals to tap into the inner strength they possess, and I see feminism as a key principle guiding the actions of Canada’s New Democratic Party.

Formerly, I was undecided about which Canadian political party I favoured. Thinking back to the election that took place when I was in fourth grade, I remember being intuitively in favour of the NDP. Of course, the legitimacy of a child’s intuition is often mistaken for what makes him and her impressionable, and that’s the influence of a manipulative soul. Hopefully my new-found tendency to identify as a feminist is not the result of manipulation – as I could succumb to rhetoric against faith – but the result of divine liberation. For instance, the obscurity which with I write may or may not achieve the directness I am going for, but the artistic soul with which each of us is born remains a part of what I want to achieve in solidarity with other children who see themselves in the limitless sky. Yes, I am a woman. A woman is a child just as a man is.

Star of Davida Essay Contest Honorable Mention: Lisa B

2011-12-19T18:25:00.000-05:00

This essay by Lisa B is one of the honorable mentions of the Star of Davida Essay Contest, answering the question "How has feminism changed your life?"

Past

Realising that she has always been somewhat different from other people in her attitude and determined to raise her children other than the way she and many of her friends had been brought up, my mother read every book on children's psychology she could get hold of before my birth and discovered her passion for the Swiss psychologist Alice Miller. Even though Miller has never been explicitely classified as a feminist, her work has been praised by several feminist scholars; the probably most important (and feminism-related) point my mother gained from reading her books was about gendered socialisation - and this was basically the first means by which feminism changed my life.

From an early age onwards, my mother ensured that I wasn‘t pushed towards a typically 'girly' way of being, so for example she forbid my all too traditional paternal grandmother to put me in flouncy pink dresses and never bought me one of these crying, puking baby dolls that ALL of the other girls from kindergarten and primary school had as she believed they were only made to prepare little girls for their allegedly natural role as mothers (I never asked for one anyway). Nevertheless, she would let me wear dresses if I wanted to and did not stop me from playing with my Barbies (which my younger brother did as well). My mother simply wanted that neither of us had to meet the expectations of certain gendered behaviour, so my brother and me enjoyed doing 'boy' and 'girl' stuff equally much during our childhood.

Growing up, I wasn't aware of how this education had shaped me - I just realised that I differed from most people/girls my age in terms of behaviour and thinking as I questioned a lot of things others took for granted. I came across the concept of feminism in my early teens which was quite a revalation as the reading I did helped me to articulate my views. That didn't earn me a lot of friends and I was frequently confronted with prejudices, but it lead to me finally having a steady character and more sophisticated opinions.

Present

I am the result of my past. I have indeed inevitably changed over time, but many things have remained the same, even though I experience them differently, more consciously now. Wearing boys clothes isn't just a matter of comfort and taste anymore: it is a political statement. Speaking openly about my opinions, including feminist views in discussions when appropriate and directly addressing the day-to-day unfairness one encounters has become self-evident for me. And spending my money on feminist literature gives me a much greater feeling of satisfaction than buying clothes with it or wasting it on a night out. I believe that these little everyday things make the influence feminism has had on me even more visible than obvious actions like joining the feminist society of my uni; they seem to be a mere, yet logical result of my personality's changes (now that sounds highbrow!).

As Cultural Studies are part of my degree, I'm very lucky to be given the opportunity to specialise within gender related issues and write my assignments about it. The research I‘ve done so far was not only highly interesting, but made me think about even more about what feminism actually is and inhowfar I can identify with it. There is still so much to discover and my currently biggest wish is to deepen my knowledge with a postgraduate degree in Women's/Gender studies at Oxford or Cambridge.

Future

While there isn't much to say about the present, there is even less to say about my future. Que sera sera. Will I get into Oxbridge for a Women's/Gender studies degree? Will my awareness of the importance of gender issues both in history and current every day life give me a competitive edge as a journalist or will prospective employers dismiss me and my views as being too critical/unpleasant/demanding for their output and its consumers? Will I shake up the mainstream media with my contributions or end up writing for a specialist feminist publication? I don't know. But there is one thing that I do know for sure: As long as gender matters, I will keep my interest in it and remain ambitious to challenge any stereotypes, inequalities and discriminative attitudes in its respect that make life difficult for anyone on this planet.

Theater Review: Standing on Ceremony

2011-12-12T17:11:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I saw the Minetta Lane Theater show Standingon Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays. The show is made up of nine shortplays, all of which explore gay and lesbian relationships and marriage.

A Jewish mother desperate for herkinder to get married is at the heart of “My Husband,” written by Jewish ObieAward-winner Paul Rudnick. This play is a conversation between GabrielleFinkelstein and her son Michael after gay marriage was legalized in New York. Gabrielle isdesperate for her son to get married, mostly because she needs to compete with otherliberal Jewish Democrat parents whose gay children have gotten married. I wasclutching my sides from laughter during this play, partially because I actuallyknow a Jewish mother who felt this away about her gay son.

I find it amusing that The NewYork Times’ review of “My Husband” completely didn’t understand it,describing it only as “a clever spoof of the collective rush to the altar andthe competitive streak it can bring out in both the participants and their relatives.”The review doesn’t even use the word “Jewish” anywhere, and certainly doesn’tacknowledge the unique relationship between a Jewish mother and her childrenanywhere. Can only Jews understand this kind of thing?

“London Mosquitoes,” penned by JewishTony Award-nominated director Moises Kaufman, is a monologue from the point ofview of a widower eulogizing his deceased lover. Joe begins the play bymentioning a rabbi, and ends it off by beginning the Mourners’ Kaddish (theprayer service for the dead), “yisgadal v’yiskadash shemai rabbah b’alma div’ra…” (The text of the Kaddish actually has nothing to do withdeath; rather, it praises God, showing the speaker’s belief in the Holy Oneeven at times of great emotional distress. The line Joe says means “magnified andsanctified be God’s great name in this world which God has created.”) I don’tknow if I’m reading too far into it, but I interpret the fact that “LondonMosquitoes” mentions Judaism at the beginning and the end shows that if aperson is born a Jew, he or she will die a Jew, too; it doesn’t matter whetherhe or she is straight or gay.

Two of the plays focused onlesbian couples. “Traditional Wedding,” written by comedian Mo Gaffney, is adialogue between long-married lesbians happily reminiscing about their wedding.Because they didn’t want to use the terminology “bride” or “groom,” theydecided on “broom” instead, even decorating the top of their cake with twobrooms. This play was very bittersweet: Liz, one of the women, describes howher father kicked her out when he found out she was gay and then wouldn’t cometo the wedding, while her partner’s former Marine father attended with tears ofjoy in his eyes. I appreciated how this play really depicts reality, even ifit’s sometimes not the reality we would like to face.

“This Flight Tonight,” byplaywright Wendy MacLeod, is a conversation between two lesbians who have tofly to Iowa from California in order to get married legally. Whilethe couple bickers and disagrees, almost deciding not to board the plane to Des Moines after all, atthe end they realize that marrying in the eyes of the law is worth the effort.This play really showcases the stupidity of the fact that marriage is a stateissue. It reminds me of the women’s suffrage battle, where suffragist AlicePaul butted heads with major suffragists because they wanted to pursue theright to vote on a state-by-state basis, while she thought it would be moreeffective to lobby for a constitutional amendment. Her idea was the one thatworked at the end, resulting in the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteeing women theright to vote. I really think it would be extremely valuable for the gaycommunity to learn from the women’s rights movement in this way, and possiblyfocus more effort on getting federal laws protecting marriage equality.

All in all, I greatly enjoyed Standingon Ceremony and would definitely recommend it. Get your tickets fast - itcloses on December 18! Part of all proceeds is donated to Freedom to Marry, as well as otherorganizations dedicated to gay marriage. When you buy tickets, you’re not onlyguaranteeing yourself a good time, but helping gay rights!

Star of Davida Essay Contest Winner: Quin R

2011-12-08T17:08:00.001-05:00

This essay by Quin R is one of the winners of the Star of Davida Essay Contest, answering the question "How has feminism changed your life?"

I am a white, middle class, cisgendered, and heterosexual male. I am also a feminist.

Although I realize that this may seem no small irony, I believe that there exists no contradiction between these statements. Just because I may never suffer street harassment for wearing the wrong shade of red, or be denied access to my birth control prescription because my pharmacist is a practicing Roman Catholic, does not mean that someone I care about will not be, that I cannot know injustice when I see it, or that I will never be a victim of the oppressive gender binary. Perhaps that sounds a bit polemic, but, to me, the kind of thinking that would allow, even now, women to still be paid less than men for the same work is not only morally wrong: It fully assaults common sense. Furthermore, I should not have to experience, let alone witness, intimate partner violence first hand to realize how much it damages not only the victim, but society. If we live in a world where a woman being beaten for insufficiently pleasing her husband is viewed as a social norm or private matter, how far are we from condoning it as a social norm? But, ultimately, my feminism does not merely constitute support for reformist social policies. It is my lifestyle, my worldview, and my intellectual stimulation. I live feminism every day, from the use of “Ms.” when addressing adults, to the way I hold the door for everybody behind me, not just the smart young women with whom I go to school.

Moreover, nothing in my gaze can escape feminist analysis. I cannot even watch I Love Lucy anymore without considering the implications of the fact that Lucy can be seen being repeatedly spanked by Ricky, or that she does not have free access to a “charge plate.” Conversely, however, I have gained a new appreciation for Veronica Mars, for I now realize the barriers Veronica must break not only to gain access to hidden documents and to escape detection, but also to be taken seriously as a blonde teenage female in the middle of suburbia (and she’s on the wrong side of a class war, to boot).

Overall, though, feminist theory impassions my mind. Before feminism, I was unable to discern the subtle connections between the disparate parts of society that create the kyriarchy, or the system of overlapping oppressions that keep us all trapped, and I am finally able to engage with the otherwise monotonous works assigned in my English classes. Given enough time, I can even defend Lady Macbeth on the basis that she lives in a patriarchal society that does not allow women to be powerful in their own right, so she must live vicariously though her husband. I understand that the narrative of this essay is not focused on one particular event or component of my philosophy. But I cannot condense what has become the most basic framework for my thought process down to a neat package. Then again, I do not believe in placing ideas, or people for that matter, into neat packages. For I am a feminist.

Star of Davida Essay Contest Winner: Eliana NB

2011-12-05T17:17:00.001-05:00

This essay by Christina P is one of the winners of the Star of Davida Essay Contest, answering the question "How has feminism changed your life?"

We all owe so much to feminism. Over the years, it has helped us gain basic human rights and the freedom to be individuals. Feminism especially affects those of us who identify as feminist. When a girl or woman first discovers that she is a feminist, her opinions and worldview start to change. For me, feminism encouraged me to stand up for what I believe in, empowered me to realize my opportunities, helped me to gain the respect of numerous people, and enabled me to find an online community of like-minded teenagers.

Feminism helped me to always stand up for what I believe in. Throughout my time as a feminist, I have learned that it is better to stand up for what you believe than to fume silently. Being a feminist has helped me to comment on the sexism that I see in society, even if it means interrupting a class or otherwise risking some embarrassment. As a feminist, I realized that it doesn’t matter what others think of you, so long as you know that you did the right thing and stood up for your beliefs.

Without feminism, I would not have nearly as many opportunities in life. Fortunately for me, both my parents showed me that I could be anything that a guy could be. For example, I love science. When I was a little kid, it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t be allowed to be a doctor because of my gender. Feminism helps me to be more confident in myself, not only in my beliefs, but in general life. Thanks to feminism, I don’t see my gender as a disadvantage in difficult classes. Confidence is vital to education because it is very important to participate, discuss, and ask questions. Students who are not confident cannot understand ideas and concepts as well, because they don’t interact with the outside world as much.

Despite some societal opposition, feminism has helped me gain people’s respect. This is usually from adults (especially women) who already support feminism, whether they identify as feminist or not. However, even some people who do not support feminism respect me for speaking up for what I believe and caring about important issues. I also have gained the respect of those of my peers who support feminism and gender equality. Although I don’t know if all of my friends identify as feminists, most of the girls I discuss sexism with agree with me and have a lot to say, so feminism is a definite conversation starter.

I was happy to discover the online world of feminist blogs. It’s very encouraging to read articles written by other feminist teenagers, because it helps me know that I’m not the only one who feels this way. The internet helps girls connect with each other and helped me to learn about many issues and topics that I might not otherwise have thought about. This is different from relying on books (which are also wonderful) or other media because it gives teenagers opportunities to discuss issues which are not as applicable to adults, who control the publishing world.

My life has definitely been changed and improved by feminism. I believe that all women and girls have been positively affected by feminism, and that most of the rights we enjoy today are the result of the feminist movement. Joining the continued struggle for feminism is an important decision. A dedication to equality can have wonderful, life-changing effects. Feminism taught me to stand up for what I believe in, realize my opportunities, gain people’s respect, and connect with girls who feel similarly.

Star of Davida Essay Contest Winner: Christina P

2011-11-28T22:15:00.001-05:00

This essay by Christina P is one of the winners of the Star of Davida Essay Contest, answering the question "How has feminism changed your life?"

As a child, I was largely a tomboy. I begged my parents to let me play hockey, refused to let my mom dress me in “girly” clothing (anything pink or that had flowers), and racked up more scars on my body than I could count. I was also largely a stereotypical little girl. I had two trunks full of dress up clothes (which was the only time being “girly” was acceptable), I had at least a dozen boxes full of Barbie and her friends, and I filled the empty hole in my heart where hockey might have been with dance classes and gymnastics. As you might guess, I definitely learned about gender roles very early on because I encountered a lot of things I couldn’t do because it wasn’t considered appropriate for my gender. Because of this, I was quick to latch onto feminism. A movement that told me that I could do whatever I wanted and that my gender was no reason to be held back? I couldn’t have been happier.

In addition to my feminist philosophy, I have also been an advocate for the LGBT+ community, which is a community I began to identify with the more I came to accept and understand my sexuality. Slowly there emerged a middle ground between feminism and the LGBT+ community, and as it became clearer to me I learned about the transgendered community. Unlike discrimination based on sexual orientation, transgendered people face it based on their gender identity, and this is because we are uncomfortable with people expressing styles of dress, behaviors, etc. that aren’t stereotypical of the gender that we (unfairly) assign them along with their sex. In other words, it’s largely because of gender norms and roles that we’re expected to adhere to. I’ve now devoted a lot of time (and by a lot of time I mean an entire research proposal paper on the self-esteem of transgendered youth and another research paper that explores that injustices that transgendered people face) to learning about how these gender roles play a part in all of our lives.

As a psychology major, I was always intent on using my acquired skills and knowledge in order to play a part in making people’s lives better. After having immersed myself in two communities that have played a large role in shaping me (I attribute feminism to making me passionate and caring whereas the LGBT+ community has helped me come to accept myself), I have now come to better realize what more I can do. After I finish my undergraduate work, I hope to eventually end up in a PsyD clinical psychology program with a focus in gender identity and sexual orientation. I want to primarily work in the LGBT+ community in hopes that being a feminist and gender equality activist will have also given me an understanding in sexuality and gender.

Why I Celebrate Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T23:15:00.001-05:00

I celebrate Thanksgiving becauseI am thankful.

I am thankful to this amazingcountry that we call the United States of America. My grandparents came hereafter they survived concentration camp, and they were plenty thankful that theywere given a refuge after the hell they went through in Europe.They celebrated Thanksgiving every year, with an elaborate meal shared withfriends and relatives. They were more than happy to show their appreciation forthis country.

And while everyone always pointsout America’sfaults and goes on about how horrible it is to live here, and yeah, there are definitelyplenty of things that need to be changed, I think this country is prettyfreaking incredible.

Cool stuff I can do as anAmerican woman without getting thrown into jail or executed:

Run a blog that criticizes the government and its officials, as well as religious leaders and practices
Worship the god I believe in as loudly as I want to
Wear what I want
Vote
Run for public office
Drive
Get an abortion
Use birth control
Pursue a higher education
Play in a professional sports team
Marry who I want
Have a credit card in my own name
Own property
Get a divorce and have custody of my children
Receive equal pay for equal work

I know a lot of these thingsaren’t as great as they seem. No, there is no WNFL, gay marriage is only legalin a few states, and reproductive rights are being threatened and limited everyday (among many other unfair practices). But there are women’s football teamsand leagues, same-sex couples can be united in marriage in a few states, andwomen are able to get abortions and use birth control if they choose. In thenineteenth century (and even the mid-twentieth), most of the things listedabove weren’t even dreamed of, let alone enacted. Other countries are,unfortunately, at the same point as America in 1850.

So that’s why I’m thankful tothis country, and why I celebrate Thanksgiving. Thank you, America.Please continue improving in how awesome you are.

Star of Davida Essay Contest Winners!

2011-11-22T21:39:00.001-05:00

Star of Davida recently held anessay contest that asked students to answer the question “How has feminismchanged your life?” I received a number of amazing entries, which made it hardto decide on the winners. Each one of the essays stood out so much and all of them for different reasons. Here are the winners and honorable mentions (listed in alphabetical order)!

Winners: Christina P, Eliana NB, and Quin R

Honorable Mentions: Jackie O and Lisa B

Christina, Eliana, and Quin havewon Care Bears on Fire’s album Get Over It! and their essays will bepublished here on Star of Davida. Lisa and Jackie’s work will also beposted. Stay tuned!

For further feminist inspiration, make sure to check out the Links page (which can be found in the sidebar on the left) to some awesome Jewish, feminist, and Jewish feminist online media outlets.

Theater Review: The Judy Show

2011-11-19T18:12:00.001-05:00

I recently saw the off-Broadwayplay The Judy Show. An absolutely hilarious one-person show starring comedianJudy Gold, it’s all about Gold’s life as a lesbian and a Jew, and her quest toget a sitcom on TV featuring a family with gay parents.

I totally loved this play. I sawit with my mom, and the two of us were literally clutching our sides withlaughter. While I would have really appreciated if she specifically identifiedwith the feminist movement, it’s clear that Gold does support the ideals ofwomen’s rights. She’s also extremely active in gay rights (a feminist cause),hosting the Sirius/XM weekly radio show “Hatched By Two Chicks” and the GLAADMedia Awards, as well as performing on a half-hour comedy special for LOGO,among other activities.

In the play, she talks aboutgrowing up Jewish in predominantly Gentile Clark, New Jersey. Being Jewish is aclear part of Gold’s identity: she usually describes herself as a “6”3 lesbianJew.” (I appreciated her usage of the word Jew as opposed to Jewish,since people are often reluctant to label themselves so blatantly as Jews.) Alot of her jokes are about her stereotypically Jewish mother, obsessed with herchildren and the state of Jewry. A lot of my own mother’s idiosyncrasies aresimilar to what Gold was describing, although I never realized they were Jewishmother things. (I thought everyone took the soap and shampoos from hotels! Imeans, it’s just there for the taking…and doesn’t everyone look at lists ofnames and point out the Jewish ones?) Gold had her rebellious moments, though:in high school, she ate cheeseburgers, knowing that her parents would behorrified at this blatant disregard of Jewish law. She now calls herselfobservant, which I think is beautiful. I know many LGBT Jews feel it’s impossibleto be religious and gay at the same time, and the fact that Gold is able to doboth really gives me hope.

Another thing I found interestingwas that Gold didn’t talk about coming out as gay to her friends. I think it’sgreat that she never felt a need to announce to the world that she’s a lesbian- I mean, do straight people have to tell everyone their sexuality? Gold didstruggle with telling her parents, though. Her father knew she was gay, but shewas never able to tell him directly, and she deeply regretted it when he died.She eventually told her mother and sister. While it took her mom a while to getused to the idea (she originally told people that Gold’s “roommate” had a babyand she adopted him), she came around.

The whole premise of The JudyShow is that Gold wants a sitcom about her family called The Judy Show:a divorced lesbian couple with two sons. Gold was fascinated with TV during herchildhood and adolescence: in the play, she explains how shows like The Jeffersons,Maude, Three’s Company, and The Brady Bunch shaped herviews on the world and her expectations for life (which, unfortunately, werenot always met). She went to several networks and pitched the idea, but wasrepeatedly turned down, even by LOGO. OWN actually began filming, but thendecided to nix the show because of the controversy it would stir (something thefinancially-suffering network feels it can’t afford).

I do find it interesting thatGold has faced so much opposition and disinterest to her idea. Modern Family,which has won and been nominated for dozens of prestigious awards, has a gay couple with an adopted child; Willand Grace, which was also wildly successful,featured two gay men and their hags. Why is the concept of a whole showcentered around a family with two mommies so threatening to TV producers?Shouldn’t TV shows reflect the reality of the world, which now includesfamilies with gay parents?

Whatever the case, I look forwardto the day when kids - hopefully my own - can watch The Judy Show on TVevery week on prime time.

Get your tickets fast - TheJudy Show closes on November 27!

Black Holes of Davida: Togo's

2011-11-10T17:58:00.001-05:00

Togo’s, a fast food sandwichrestaurant chain often combined with Dunkin Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, recentlyreleased a new ad campaign titled “Better than a Breadwich.” In the commercial(which can be viewed here), two claymationwomen walking down the street are flashed by a sandwich. At first, they seemtraumatized, but then they laugh it off. As the sandwich runs away, a voiceoversays, “Don’t settle for puny,” then sells the new Togo’s sandwich.

This commercial is extremelyproblematic on many levels. It completely negates the fear, anxiety, andhumiliation most women feel when they are subjected to street harassment,especially an outright illegal act like flashing. The ad implies that oncewomen get over the surprise of street harassment, they’ll judge the “quality”of their harasser and base their reaction to him on that. Because this sandwichwas “puny,” they laughed. If the sandwich was big and meaty, would they havesmiled and flirted instead? This is NOT the reality of street harassment. Itdoesn’t matter what the harasser looks like - women will be upset when they’reflashed, or whistled at, or groped, or otherwise harassed.

It’s also extremely stereotypical.The sandwich, at least in my opinion, seems like a stereotypical Hispanicgangster-type: hanging around in an alley next to a liquor store, with amustache, wearing sunglasses, preying on non-Hispanic women. (The only twistedlittle positive this ad has is that it portrays one of the women asAfrican-American. A common misconception about street harassment is that onlywhite women are victimized.)

The saddest part of this is that Togo’s justdoesn’t get how offensive it is to women. Renae Scott, the vice president ofbranding and marketing at Togo’s,described the ad as “edgy.” Ignoring the fact that using the word “edgy” todescribe any commercial about a pork sandwich is asinine, does she really thinkstreet harassment is edgy, trendy, cutting edge? Does she want someone to comeover to her while she’s walking on the street with a friend and flash her? Doesshe want that to happen to her friends? Mother? Grandmother? Aunts? Nieces?Daughters?

So tell Togo’s that youfind this ad offensive! You can email them here and say:

I find your recent “Betterthan a Breadwich” commercial highly offensive. It trivializes streetharassment, a serious and traumatizing crime that shouldn’t be taken lightly ormocked in a commercial. I strongly urge you to pull this campaign andsubstitute it with something that doesn’t poke fun at women who have been flashedand otherwise harassed on the street.

I sent them an email incomplaint, and they responded:

We wanted to make sure you knewthat we received your comment regarding our recent TV commercial. It is neverour intention to offend anyone. Our spot was meant to be fun and quirkyand to make fun of sandwiches that are all bread and no meat. I will makesure our Marketing team hears your concerns. I truly appreciate your feedbackand will pass it along to our Brand Marketing team.

Make sure they hear from as manypeople as possible. There’s strength in numbers!

For now, I dub Togo's an inductee into the Black Holes of Davida - people who let us feminists down by advocating misogyny, sexism, abuse, and other anti-woman thoughts and actions.

Boys, Music, Rape - the Usual Suspects

2011-11-07T19:13:00.001-05:00

I babysit two absolutely lovelyboys, aged eight and ten. (The older one has been my “boyfriend” for a numberof years now.) Their parents are also very sweet people who. I know the familythrough synagogue and from around the neighborhood. They try really hard to observehalakha (Jewish law), and send their boys to an Orthodox school. (Thefact that I’m willing to babysit for them is a testament to how great these twokids are, because I’m really picky about my clients.)

The last time I was babysittingthem, one of the boys was messing around on his dad’s iPad and playing music.His first choice was Ke$ha’s “Crazy Beautiful Life.” His second was KatyPerry’s ET. I asked if his parents mind if he listens to that music, and hesaid that the only reason he doesn’t usually play it out loud is because hismom is in the yearlong mourning period and can’t listen to music.

It kinda surprised me that hischoices were those particular artists and songs. I know a lot of people don’t understand my problem with Ke$ha,but I’m sticking to my guns here. A lot of her stuff has sexual overtones orare downright explicit. Right now I’m thinking of “And they turn me on / whenthey take it off / when they take it off / everybody take it off” and “Justturn around boy and let me hit that / Don’t be a little b***h with your chitchat / Just show me where your d**k’s at,” among many other Ke$ha lyrics. In“Crazy Beautiful Life,” she uses the word douche in the chorus, as wellas the b word and s word, and talks about being high. It’s just not appropriatefor little kids. Yes, I know they can hear those words and worse on television,especially cable, but curb it where you can, you know?

[TRIGGER WARNING]

I find the fact that they werelistening to “ET” absolutely unacceptable, though. The song, as stated inseveral feminist blogs, is a violent rape fantasy. Katy says in the chorus “Kiss me, kiss me / Infectme with your love and / Fill me with your poison / Take me, take me / Wanna beyour victim / Ready for abduction.” It’s not like it’s hard to understand oranything. The lyrics are blatant. Then Kanye West comes in and raps! Surprisingthat a guy who enjoys raping dead white women would collaborate on a song likethis, huh?Well, he does, stating that “Imma disrobe you / Then Imma probe you / See I’veabducted you / So I’ll tell you what to do.” Again, completely blatant. Nodouble entendres or sexual innuendos here. Katy and Kanye like telling it likeit is, apparently.

And so, I think that anyone withany sense of appropriateness will agree with me that this song is completelynot anywhere near the realm of okay for children. Two young boys, listening toa woman say how she wants to be raped and hearing a man describe how to rapeher? I’m sorry, that doesn’t jibe with me. I know the nuances of the song aretotally lost on kids that little, and they probably don’t listen to it thathard and don’t understand it if they do, but it’s still in their heads. I knowthat I’ve still got songs stuck in my head that I listened to when I was theirage and haven’t heard since. What a way to raise future feminists!

It’s not their parents’ fault,since they weren’t home when they were playing these songs. However, theincident still really bothered me. I know people will think I’m overreacting tothis and say that I’m making a big deal over nothing, but I really think thisis an issue. There are links between violent, sexualized video games to murderand other violent physical crimes. I don’t know of any identified link between musicwith violent descriptions to crime, but is it so far-fetched? I really don’tthink so.

It’s absolutely crazy, to behonest. There are hundreds of great organizations out there that are working tochange this, but it’s still the reality women and men face. It certainly has tobe changed.

Retouching Photographs: Ethical?

2011-10-31T18:10:00.000-04:00

Retouchingphotographs of models in magazines and newspapers has been a point ofcontroversy in the publishing industry ever since technology like Photoshop hasbecome readily available. Most magazines, especially ones dedicated to fashionand/or celebrity stalking, have no qualms about retouching “imperfect”pictures. I think this practice is absolutely reprehensible.

There areinstances when it’s appropriate to retouch photograph. For example, if a personin a photograph has red eye or some stray hairs, or the lighting isn’t good, orthere’s some other imperfection that doesn’t change the concept of the pictureto a ridiculous degree, I don’t see a problem with that. I do take issue withpictures retouched to the point that the original subject is unrecognizable orcompletely changed, especially in the mass media.

Dozens ofstudies have proven that young women are very much influenced by how the mediaportrays women, whether television or the Internet or magazines. (A specificstudy I have in mind was conducted in Tahiti, where girls were almostuniversally happy with their bodies until the Americans came in and inculcatedthem with the media.) As a result, when models are depicted as super-skinnywith heads wider than their hips (as included in this post), that sends girls a message that they need tobe as thin as possible in order to be accepted, “normal.” This sort of thing iswhy anorexia and other eating disorders are so common in our society. If modelsand celebrities were shown in magazines looking the way they do without make upand Photoshop enhancements, young women would be able to see what “normal”really is.

I think thepurpose of photographs should be to represent reality. If a person wants it torepresent art, he or she should draw or paint. Photographs shouldn’t lie. Photographyshouldn’t be based on the concept of, “I took this picture and I know it’s notperfect, so instead of trying again and again until I get it right, I’ll justPhotoshop it when I get home.” Yes, if at second glance there’s some minorimperfection with the photograph, I don’t think it’s a big deal to retouch it alittle bit, but to completely change a picture is just wrong.

Religiouslyspeaking, there’s the concept of genevat da’at, tricking a person tothink one thing when that’s not the reality of the situation. I don’t thinkit’s a stretch to say that majorly retouching a picture can fall under theprohibition of genevat da’at. (This isn’t my original idea - when aHasidic newspaper infamously Photoshopped Hillary Clinton out of the historicpicture in the Situation Room after Osama bin Laden’s death, Rabbi Jason Milleropposed this on the grounds of genevat da’at.) A retouched picture of amodel depicts a person that doesn’t really exist, and displaying it to peopleis tricking them into thinking that such a person does.

So yeah, Ithink that retouching pictures isn’t the right thing to do, for numerousreasons. As much as I may say this to myself and others, I know that my innermoral compass screaming “ANOREXIA! LYING! GENEVAT DA’AT!” isn’t going tostop me from fixing every tiny imperfection in my yearbook photo, though. It’seasy to talk about not caring about how you look, but a lot harder to actuallyhave to live that way.

Steve Jobs, Apple, and Rosie the Riveter

2011-10-27T18:31:00.001-04:00

I thought I'd share the picture I made in school (awesome advanced computer classes, baby!) as a tribute to Steve Jobs. Apple ran the Think Different ad campaign from 1997-2002, showing commercials and print advertisements featuring "the crazy ones" who dared to change the world. The art directors behind it were all women (Jennifer Golub, Jessica Schulman, and Yvonne Smith). A number of awesome women are featured in the campaign, including Joan Baez, Rosa Parks, Jane Goodall, and Amelia Earhart.

When our teacher told us that our next assignment would be to design an ad that could be a part of the Think Different campaign, I immediately thought of Rosie the Riveter, the iconic World War II ad that encouraged women to enter the workforce. I added an Apple logo tattoo (and blended it into her skin) and "Think Different!" instead of "We Can Do It!" in her speech bubble.

Links to cool articles about Steve Jobs, Rosie the Riveter, and what they have to do with feminism:
A Tale of Two Siblings - Steve Jobs and Mona Simpson
Revolting Women: Joan of Arc, Rosie the Riveter, and the Feminist Protest Icon

What Does Jewish Look Like to You?

2011-10-24T23:14:00.000-04:00

Procrastinating is always loadsof fun, and thanks to the Internet, it’s really easy to do. There are very manywonderful things to do to waste time, one of my personal favorites beingbrowsing the website iwastesomuchtime.com. (Other cool sites are fmylife.com,dearblankpleaseblank.com, and drawapig.desktopcreatures.com.)

While I was putting off doingsomething important, I noticed the picture above. Yeah, ha ha, very funny,reminds me of the “Death to All Juice” protest sign. However, itoccurred to me: why are these Jews portrayed as male? (The big noses are a little offensive, too.)

When you Google Image “Jew” andskim the results, almost all of the pictures are of white Ashkenazi-looking Hasidicmales. The few pictures that aren’t are mostly anti-Semitic or anti-Israel; womenand non-Hasids make up a small minority. When you Google Image “Orthodox Jews,”it’s the same (except for the much-loved Tefillin Barbie). I alsofind it interesting that there are so many are anti-Israel pictures, a surprisingfact considering that most Orthodox Jews are pro-Israel.

I suppose these results justmirror the reality of the world. When asked to picture a Jew, most people willimmediately think of a bearded rabbi, possibly with a big nose and black hat, even if s/he doesn’t personally know one.Few will think of a woman, non-white, or non-Ashkenaz.

Well, at least it's an improvement from when people really thought that Jews had horns, right? That myth might've taken a few centuries to dispel, but I really do think that in ageneration or two from now, the Google Image results for “Jew” and “Orthodox Jews”will be different. There are so many more women role models within thereligious and secular Jewish communities nowadays, and that number will onlyincrease. In synagogues, there are women like Rabba Sara Hurwitz, Rachel KohlFinegold, Lynn Kaye, and Dina Najman; the children of their congregations won’tbe strangers to women in leadership positions. There is a proliferation of mohelot, female circumcisers, among the non-Orthodox; it's only a matter of time until more observant circles get the hang of it, too. Female mashgihot (kosher certifiers) are also increasing in popularity. Yavilah McCoy, an African-AmericanJewish woman, is active in advocacy for Jews of color. Idit Klein, the executive director of Keshet, shows Jews that they can be included in the community, no matter what their sexual orientation. There are dozens of Jewish women in the music and film industry who let their Jewish identities be known.

I think that Vanessa Hidary reallyembodies the point of this post. Ms. Hidary is a Sephardic woman poet who’strying to show the world that everyone can be a Jew, regardless of what s/helooks like. I had the honor of interviewing her a while ago, and I still keep upwith her work (she released a book recently, The Last Kaiser Roll in the Bodega). I fell in love with her work when I first heard her poem “The Hebrew Mamita.”

“I'm thinking, I'm saying
What does Jewish look like to you?
Should I fiddle on a f**king roof for you?
Should I humor you with oy veys and refuse to pay?
Oh, 'cause you know how we like to Jew you down
Jew you down, I'd like to throw you down!...

I'm the Hebrew mamita
Long-lost daughter of Abraham and Sarah
The sexy oy-veying chutzpah-having non-cheaping non-conspiracizing always-questioning hip hop-listening Torah scroll-reading all people-loving
Pride-filled
Jewish girl.

Bigging up all people who are a little miffed
'Cause someone tells you you don't look like
Or act like your people.
Impossible, because you are your people.
You just tell them they don't look,

Period.”

Love Your Body Day

2011-10-19T16:57:00.002-04:00

As many of you probably know,today is NOW’s fourteenth annual Love Your Body Day. I think it’s great thatNOW has been raising awareness of body image issues for so long, and I hopethat this campaign touches girls and boys all over the world.

I think everyone can attest tothe fact that it’s a lot easier to say “love your body” than to actually loveyour own body. We all have our insecurities, and it’s extremely difficult tojust leave them at the door. I can get on a soapbox and say how beauty is justa perception that men have created to oppress women and blah blah blah, butthat’s not gonna solve anything or make women feel any better about themselves.Honestly, it irritates me when people say that kinda thing. It’s a fact that weall want to conform to societal standards and not be the weirdo, and part ofthat is the desire to be pretty. We all want to be accepted. God bless the minorityof women who have gotten to the point where they could care less how they look,but most of us haven’t gotten to that level yet.

At the end of the day, I justthink that we should all feel comfortable in our bodies, and not judge othersfor how they look. If Sarah is a size 24 and wants to lose weight, then she hasmy blessing; if Rebecca is a size 24 who loves how she looks, good for her too. Sarah and Rebecca shouldn’t criticize each other’s choices regarding weight, andit’s nobody else’s business, either.

I have a younger friend whosebuild will never allow her to look like a runway model, but she’s far from fat.There have been a number of occasions where people have said to her (in myhearing, no less) “Oh, you have such a pretty face,” or even flat-out “You’d beso pretty if you were thin.” I have another younger friend who is also not thin, and she's told me about some of the things that girls and boys have said to her to mock her weight. She tries really hard not to let it bother her, and I think she does succeed. It still really drives me crazy that people feel thatthey can say whatever they want to impressionable little girls like my two friends, andI really want to give it to them. Like, it’s none of your business what shelooks like! Do you want her to feel like garbage because of how she looks? Ifshe’s okay with it, then let her live. If she’s not okay with it, then she’lldiet or exercise on her own - she doesn’t need motivation from you.

I know that these catty people saythings like that to my friends to make themselves feel better about their owninsecurities. “Well, my [insert body part here] might be horrendous, but at least I’m not fat likeher.” Sometimes it’s honestly well-intentioned, albeit completely tactless. It’sthese nasty comments are the kinds of things we never forget, that plague usfor the rest of our lives. We need to be vigilant against saying mean thingsabout others’ bodies, especially by accident.

My mother has influenced me a lotin this sense. She’s lost more than 100 pounds, and maintained it over a periodof several years. Because of her, I know how icky someone can feel because of theirbody weight. I just wish everyone had that sort of influence in their life.

We’re in the middle of Sukkotnow, when Jews leave their homes to live in small huts (sukkahs) to commemoratehow the Jews lived when they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. The sukkahis supposed to be fragile to show that it’s not the sukkah protecting usfrom the elements, it’s God. Similarly, it’s not really our bodies that protectour nishamot (souls); it’s God. Our bodies are just vessels for our nishamotto live in this world, and will be discarded when we die and head to OlamHaBa, the world to come. May we all learn how to come to terms with how ourvessels look in this world.

Footloose: A Feminist Review

2011-10-17T18:34:00.000-04:00

I’m not much of a movies person,since I object to paying twelve bucks for an hour and a half of entertainment(I can donate that money to a cause that has a lasting effect on the world).However, I love free stuff, and managed to get two advanced previewtickets to Footloose. Having not seen the original movie or Broadwayplay, I was only vaguely familiar withthe plot. It was pretty cute and I liked it, although I wouldn’t have beenamazed if I had paid full price to see it.

[SPOILER ALERT] While watching Footloose,a few things struck me. The movie opens at a high school keg party in Bomont, Georgia,where five students are killed in an extremely graphic car accident. (There area lot of burning cars and violent fights - definitely not for the squeamish.)The next scene shows the town’s reverend and city councilmember speaking onbehalf of a new law prohibiting partying, drinking, and dancing. The firstthing I noticed was that there was only one woman and one African-American onthe eight-person city council. (The sad part is that the percentage isn’tunrealistic - Congress is only 17% female, 8% black, 5% Latino/a, and 2%Asian-American.) I would've really liked it if there were a couple more women on the council.

Despite the fact that people ofcolor are underrepresented on Bomont’s city council, the rest of the moviemakes a specific effort to promote diversity and interracial relationships. TheWoody character was recast as African-American, and Ziah Colon, a black actor,plays Rusty (originally Sarah Jessica Parker), who becomes romantically linkedwith a white character. Throughout the movie, there are a number of extras whoare African-American, which I think is pretty cool. While Ariel and Ren, thetwo main characters, remained white, I think Footloose is still headedin the right direction.

In addition to showcasing thetalents of actors of color, the movie also tells watchers that gay bashing isunacceptable. After Chuck, Ariel’s older boyfriend, calls Ren a f*ggot, Renresponds, “I thought only a**holes used the word f*ggot.” I think that’s areally valuable message to send, especially since this is a hot-button issuetoday. (I’ve probably signed five petitions in the past week to help pro-LGBTstudents who have faced discrimination in the last week alone.)

Ariel, the minister’s daughter,is supposed to be a good-girl-gone-bad, rebelling against the anti-party lawsby dating Chuck. At the beginning, he pressures her to give into his sexualadvances, and is depicted as a generally icky dude throughout the movie (almostkilling Ren in a bus race, getting one of his cronies to plant a joint onhim, etc.). After Ariel finally realizes Chuck’s a piece of work who doesn’tdeserve her, she breaks up with him. After he calls her a slut, she startsbeating up his car with a crowbar. He brutally attacks her, giving her a blackeye. His punishment? When he comes to break up the dance at the end of themovie, Ren and Willard beat him and his cronies up.

Yeah, that’s it. Ariel nevertells her parents on-screen who beat her bloody; if she did off-screen, theydidn’t make any intentions of legal justice clear. No one else in the moviedoes, either. This made me really, really, upset. Ariel was wrong to destroy Chuck’scar, and she should be liable to pay for the damages; however, Chuck was 100%wrong to retaliate physically, and should pay for what he did in jail. It isnever, ever acceptable for a man to lay his hand on a woman (or the other wayaround), and I feel like the movie didn’t make that clear enough. Ren andWillard’s vigilante justice was a very lovely gesture, but Chuck only walkedaway bruised. Beating him up didn’t make him understand how to respect women.Only time behind bars and some serious therapy can do that. Unfortunately,there are a lot of Chucks out there who get away with beating up theirgirlfriends. Even more unfortunately, Footloose advocated an eye for aneye rather than justice via the legal system. While Chuck did at least facepunishment for what he did, it would have really made me happy if Ariel saidthat she and her parents are pressing charges.

So, I think that Footloosehad its ups and downs. I don’t know how it compared to the original, but I hopeall of you who are Kevin Bacon fans appreciate it!

Pro-Israel, Pro-Feminist

2011-10-10T14:26:00.001-04:00

I’m on EMILY’s List’s emailinglist, so I get all of their emails to support certain feminist candidates. (Itdoes bother me that they’ll only look at Democrat women, though. Can’t you atleast consider going past party lines?) A while ago, I received informationabout Kate Marshall (D-NV), who at the time was running for Congress in a special election. (She lost.)

Since the info was from EMILY’sList, I knew Marshall had to champion women’scauses, but I didn’t know about her position on Israel. I procrastinated looking itup until recently, when I found that she released a really beautiful statementsupporting Israelwith the following at the end:

Background:Israel has been in the newslately, and will be even more in the news with Beck’s “Rally to RestoreCourage” in Jerusalem.In an R district, it will be useful to express support for Israel anddemonstrate some foreign policy prowess while it is a timely topic - especiallyfor people who are likely paying attention to Beck’s event.

Yeah. I think that speaks foritself. Don’t you love politicians that campaign as a certain platform just togarner votes, and then God knows what they’ll do once they’re in office?

I was prepared to write anarticle in total support of Marshall, but once I found out that she’s not a reliable friend of Israel, it complicates things. Thisis where the whole “are you a Jew or are you a feminist?” comes in.

I’ve said before and I’ll sayagain that I’m a Femidox Jew, an Orthodox feminist whose identity is made up ofthose two parts. (And for all you Frum Satire fans, yes, I did take the termFemidox (fifth to last) from him.) I’m Orthodox, I’m feminist. They’re equal parts ofmy identity.

So do I support Kate Marshall,the pro-woman anti-Israel candidate? No. Do I support Tammy Baldwin, who isendorsed by J Street(an anti-Israel group that claims to be otherwise) and has voted against Israel? No. Icannot stand behind any politician that is not completely, totally, andabsolutely a friend of Israel.It’s my homeland, and I need to know that it will not be in danger. (As AvivaCantor said at the Women’s Liberation and Jewish Identity Conference,if the authorities came for you because you’re a Jew, would your neighbors hideyou? What do you do if they don’t and you don’t have Israel? Unfortunately, we alreadyknow the answer - six million died as a result.)

On the flip side, do I supportFaceless Candidate X who supports Israel with his or her entireheart, but is pro-life? No. The “fem” in Femidox won’t let me do that.

In Deborah, Golda, and Me:Being Female and Jewish in America,Letty Cottin Pogrebin (the Jewish feminist founder of Ms. Magazine)mentions that she went to an identity conference once, where there were signslike “woman” and “Jew” to stand beneath. At the time she chose to identify as awoman, but she says that “after 1975, I would not have been so sure.” I feel like I’m almosther opposite: a few years ago, I would have immediately gone to “Jew,” but nowI’d have to stand under both. Because that’s who I am: a Femidox Jew.

It can get tiresome to jugglearound two identities all the time, but hey, I never said my life was easy.

About the picture I included with this post: it was a flag flown by a Holocaust survivor when the UN announced the creation of the state of Israel.

Don't forget that today is the last day to submit for the Star of Davida Essay Contest! If you need a few more days, the deadline's not written in stone, but please email me at starofdavida@gmail.com to inform me that your entry will be late.

Women of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur

2011-10-06T19:54:00.001-04:00

Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur areprobably the most well-known Jewish holidays. Separated by the Aseret YimeiTeshuva, ten days of repentance, they’re the two holiest days on the Jewishcalendar. Rosh HaShanah, which commemorates the creation of the world, is whenGod judges everyone. The completely righteous are immediately written in theBook of Life; the completely evil are blotted out. In the interim AseretYimei Teshuva, those who fall somewhere in between are given the chance to domore good deeds and tip the scales in their favor. On Yom Kippur, we do teshuva(repentance) for all the bad things we did in the past year, and hope that thegood deeds we did will redeem us and get our names into the Book of Life.

Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippuroccur in the month of Tishrei (September-October). Technically, this is thefirst month of the Jewish year; however, Nissan (April-May) is biblicallyconsidered the first month, as the Jews were freed from slavery in Egypt duringNissan. Tishrei is the seventh month from Nissan. The number seven has a lot ofsignificance in Judaism. One reason is because there are seven female prophetsin the Bible: Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah, and Esther. Eachof these prophets has a unique connection to Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur thatwe must learn from.

Sarah, the firstMatriarch, relates to the shofar, the ram’s horn that is blown on RoshHaShanah. According to Leviticus Rabbah (a commentary), after the Binding ofIsaac, Isaac returned home and told Sarah what had happened. Disturbed by thefact that her only child, who she gave birth to at age ninety, was almostkilled by his own father; “Thereupon she uttered sixcries, corresponding to the six blasts of the shofar.”

We read the story of the Bindingof Isaac every Rosh HaShanah. The shofar is made of a ram’s horn, whichis the animal that Abraham sacrificed in Isaac’s stead. Sarah’s cries determinethe number of times we blow the shofar. This shows us that every familymember should have the same opportunities to connect to God during RoshHaShanah and Yom Kippur. Mothers and girls over bat mitzvah age shouldn’t beexpected to stay home with the children and cook; they should be able to go tosynagogue and pray. Fathers and boys over bar mitzvah age should share theresponsibility and take care of issues in the home too. That way, everyone getsa chance to connect to God on the holiest days of the year.

Miriam was Moses andAaron’s older sister. She has a deep connection to water: her name means bitterwater, it was in her merit that the Jews had a well of water while theywandered in the wilderness for forty years, and she led the Jewish womenthrough the Red Sea. She was not always aspure as water, though, since she sinned by speaking lashon hara (evilspeech) about Zipporah, Moses’ wife. Just like water is clean and basic, we areall forgiven for our bitter sins and given a clean slate on Yom Kippur: back tothe basics. We should learn from Miriam that no one is past teshuva, andwe can all achieve a sinless state.

Deborah, the prophet andjudge, connects to the mazal (fortune) of the month of Tishrei: scales. Accordingto the Sefer Yetzirah, this is because we are all judged on RoshHaShanah and Yom Kippur, our good and bad deeds compared in a scale. Deborahdispensed justice among the Jews of her generation, judging them from her datetree. We should learn from Deborah that if she was able to judge others, weshould all be able to judge ourselves. Part of teshuva, especiallyaround the Aseret Yimei Teshuva, is making a heshbon hanefesh, orthinking back on all of the things we’ve done in the past year. To make up forthe bad things we must have done, we should continue to try to tip the scalesin our favor and do as many good deeds as possible.

Hannah was the prophetSamuel’s mother. Samuel was the one of the greatest prophets that ever lived:he anointed Saul and David as kings over the Jews, and delivered countlessprophesies. His greatness, however, was all due to his mother. Hannah wasunable to have children, so she begged God for years, beseeching the Creator tobless her with a child. Her prayers were answered on Rosh HaShanah. (The sameis true for Sarah with Isaac.) She composed the Song of Hannah in thanks. Heractions show us that nothing is beyond prayers; if we ask God with the rightamount of sincerity, the Holy One, the God of Mercy, will answer all of ourprayers.

Abigail was one of KingDavid’s wives, known as an intelligent and beautiful woman. Her name in Hebrewhas the letter lamed (which makes the l sound). This shows herconnection to Tishrei, as the letter that represents Tishrei is a lamed.The reason for this is because the shape of the letter reaches up, towards thesky (not unlike an l), as if it were longing to return to the source of lifeabove, our Creator. We try to ascend to the highest levels of spirituality andcreate the closest connection to God possible on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.Abigail’s name ends with a lamed. This shows that she went through lifeconstantly trying to improve herself, working hard to reach the highest levelsof being one with God. If we just try to copy her diligence, we’ll be set for ahappy, sweet new year.

Huldah is one of the moreobscure biblical women. She was a prophet during Jeremiah’s time, andprophesied for King Josiah. In addition to having the letter lamed inher name, she was from the tribe of Ephraim, which corresponds to Tishrei. Thisis because the word ephraim comes from the root word pri, whichliterally means fruit; it’s used in the verse “to be fruitful and multiply” (Gen1:28), the first commandment given in the Torah. Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippurare all about rebirth: wiping away the bad of last year, working on making thenext year better. Huldah is also known for teaching young women, helping thegenerations be reborn with Torah knowledge. We should learn from Huldah that wehave to take our lives into our own hands and rebirth ourselves, that we haveto purposely reach out to God to get closer to the Holy One, especially at thistime of year.

Esther is the famedprotagonist of the Purim story, who saved the Jews from extinction at the handsof Haman. The holiday of Purim is considered to be even more important than YomKippur. The Zohar, the main Kabbalah book, points out similarities betweenEsther’s approach to Ahasuerus (in order to invite him to a party to exposeHaman’s plot) and the Kohen Gadol (High Priest of the Temple) on Yom Kippur. Queen Esther dressedin her special royal garments, fasted, and entered King Ahasuerus’ innerchambers at risk to her life (because he had not called for her) in order toplead for the Jewish people; the Kohen Gadol dressed in special whitegarments, fasted, and entered the Kodesh Kodashim, the innermost sanctuaryof the Temple (forbidden except on Yom Kippur) in order to plead for the Jewishpeople. If Esther was on the same level as the Kohen Gadol, the onlyperson who was ever allowed into the home of God’s presence, it’s all we can doto try and emulate her.

This Rosh HaShanah, AseretYimei Teshuva, and Yom Kippur, it’s essential that we learn from the sevenwomen prophets mentioned in Tanakh (Jewish Bible). They gave us theirlegacy in order for us to live the best lives we can.

At the Cemetery

2011-10-03T21:35:00.002-04:00

We’re at the cemetery, a coupleweeks before Rosh HaShanah, when it’s customary to visit your deceased lovedones. Ours are all in the same place. Most of them are buried within a few feetof each other.

My grandmother, who I call Baba,died the first day of Sukkot, 2007; her husband, my zaidy (grandfather), diedthe day after Yom Kippur, 1988. Within six days of each other, twenty yearsapart.

Stones are the theme of the day. First,we put small stones on their gravestones, as custom dictates. (I’m not quitesure why we do it. My mom always said that it’s to show people were there, butI feel like there has to be more of a spiritual explanation there.) Second, welook down at Baba and Zaidy’s graves, at the bed of stones covering theirbodies. (Baba always wanted to have the bed of stones on Zaidy’s grave, but shenever did it. When she died, my mom and aunt finally got them both the bed. I’mnot crazy about the look, but Baba wanted it.) Third, I look at Baba’s matzevah(gravestone), whose unveiling wasn’t even a year ago. (It still ticksme off that my cousin, who put together the gravestone, spelled her name wrong.But whatever. The look of the gravestones is still nice, they match andeverything.)

Jacob slept with stones aroundhis head one night while traveling, and they morphed into one when he woke upin the morning. He also moved the stone off the well for Rachel. Striking therock instead of talking to it was why Moses died before entering Israel. He alsocommanded that the Torah be written on stones, so that way the Jews couldn’tforget them. Both men were associated with a lot of strong women. Jacob has hismother Rebecca, his wives Bilhah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Leah, and his daughterDina; Moses had his biological mother Jochebed, adoptive mother Batya, sisterMiriam, and wife Zipporah. I guess stones are a women's thing.

As I put my little rock on Baba’smatzevah, my heart twists when I remember the unveiling. Perakim (chapters) oftehillim (psalms), said in her memory. Only one said by a blood relative. Onlythree said by relatives at all. The rest said by complete strangers to me,and probably to her too. Just because they were all men. I wasn’t allowed tosay a perek (chapter). Neither was my mom or my aunt. Women who were completestrangers weren’t allowed either. Only men who are complete strangers areallowed to say a perek of tehillim to elevate her nishama (soul).

We visit the other few relativesand friends right by Baba and Zaidy, then get in the car to go see my mother’s grandmother, who I call Bobbe. I never knew her, but she was very close with mymother, so I feel a connection to her. She was the first known woman in what Icall the Line, the Line of strong women in our family. I wear the earrings shebought for my mom, gold balls with little notches as a design.

This area of the cemetery isolder; the death dates on the gravestones are from the 40s and 50s. Bobbe diedin 1976, though. She’s next to a few other family members who died morerecently, too.

I get a little upset in the caron the way to Bobbe, but I manage to control myself. I put the rock on hermatzevah, and I’m still okay. But I break down when Ma and I walk behind Bobbeand see Beyla Giti. Bobbe’s granddaughter, my mother’s first cousin, who wassix when she died. She left this earth several years before her grandmotherdid.

The grave is for a small body, achild’s. It rips my heart out to see it, and I start to cry. I don’t even knowhow she died; I never wanted to ask. It says “yaldah yekara,” precious girl, onthe matzevah. She was a girl. A little one. It makes me hurt even more.

It also hurts to know that noneof these women had proper sendoffs. Their bodies were guarded by men, preparedby men, buried by men, eulogized by men, memorialized every year by men.

Why couldn’t my mom say Kaddish, the mourners' prayer,for my bobbe? Yes, it’s a burden to have to be in synagogue three times a dayevery day to say it, but it’s a burden every child takes on for his or herparent. But that burden went to son-in-law and cousin by marriage rather thandaughters.

No. Not for my mom. I won’t letit be. When God takes her, she’ll get a year’s worth of Kaddish from me. Nother brother-in-law, not a cousin, not her nephew. Me.

Dear readers, the deadline for the Star of Davida essay contest is fast approaching! Read here for all the details.

Faces of Feminsim

2011-09-26T18:00:00.000-04:00

Today I'm featuring this really awesome campaign that Danielle at Experimentations of Teenage Feminist is running. Contribute your face for feminism!

My name is Danielle and I write for a blog called Experimentations of Teenage Feminist. Well, now I have a new mission.

Society is fixated on a very narrow-minded image of what a feminist is “supposed” to look like, and I have a problem with that. On November 24th I’ll be publishing a special blog post titled “The Faces of Feminism” to show just how diverse the feminist community really is.

Please help this little experiment by sending in a picture of yourself for me to post!

Details:

• Photos can be sent to teenagefeminist@gmail.com (Deadline: November 17th)
• Please title your email “This is what a feminist looks like!”
• If you’d like me to link your picture to anything when I post it (i.e. a blog or website), make sure to include the link in your message!

My goal is to collect at least 100 photographs by mid-November, so please tell all of your feminist friends about this project! (For pre-written messages that can be posted on Twitter, Facebook, and/or Tumblr, check out this page.)

Thank you!

SlutWalk NYC is Being Hijacked by Terrorists

2011-09-22T21:18:00.001-04:00

Well, if that title didn’t getyour interest, I don’t know what will.

The reason I say that SlutWalkNYC is being hijacked by terrorists is because, frankly, it is. I know thatthis post is gonna get a lot of negative feedback, and everyone’s gonna think I’msome elitist uber-conservative heartless Jew, but to be honest, I’m reallysick and tired of having to be politically correct all the time.

I am pro-Israel. If you don’tlike it, then don’t read my blog. No one’s forcing you. To take a leaf out of Aliza Hausman’s book, if you have any hate mail for me, direct it to your localtherapist; if you don’t have one, get one.

Anyone reading this blog can tellthat I’m also an Orthodox Jew and a feminist. (As I like to say, a FemidoxJew.) It can be difficult to juggle the two, but I will never, ever separatethe two parts of my identity. It would be like trying to cut my body in halfand trying to figure out which side is more important.

Because I’m a feminist, I wasreally happy when I heard that SlutWalk was coming to New York, where I live. I signed up for thelistserve and everything, since I like being involved in feminist events,especially ones as big as this. You can imagine how disappointed I was when Ifound out that SlutWalk would be taking place on a Saturday, since that’s Shabbat(Sabbath), making it near impossible for me to attend. Despite this, I stillremained on the listserve (which is through Google Groups) and got a dailydigest of conversations that had occurred between members of the group, sometimesvolunteering my own opinions.

Because I love SlutWalk, it really, really, bothered mewhen I saw the title “Students for Justice in Palestine” on one topic in the Google Group.

I know it’s not politicallycorrect to say that I support Israel and am anti-Palestinian, but as I said before, I'm tired of walking on eggshells. MostPalestinians and Arabs want me and my people to be dead, so I’m not gonna try to defend them. Mahmoud Abbas, chairperson of the PLO, hassaid that he wants to push Israelinto the Mediterranean Sea. This is far froman unpopular concept among Arab leaders. They have killed countless of innocentIsraelis; a recent, prominent example of this is the murders of the Fogelfamily zikhronam l’vrakha (may their memories be blessed), five of whom,including both parents and a three-month-old baby, were slaughtered in theirbeds by two Palestinian men.

So here I am. Call me what youwant, but I just want my sisters and brothers in my homeland, Israel, to besafe. Palestinians are people too, and they deserve to be treated as such, but I'm a Jew, and my heart belongs in Israel.

In short, the thread about theStudents for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was really vomit-inducing. One membersaid that she joined the SJP, an anti-Israel hate group, and wanted to know ifthey could endorse SlutWalk. There were varying opinions for varying reasons onthe topic, but most of the people felt that it’s totally cool to accept anendorsement from the SJP; few stood up for Israel. Heck, the woman who firstmentioned the possibility later identified as a Jew.

I don’t know if SJP will end upwalking at SlutWalk with a banner; I won’t be there, so I won’t be aneyewitness. But the fact that it was ever mentioned, and that very few peoplefelt it was inappropriate that a group that has nothing to do with sexualharassment should march, just made me feel ill. Would so many people have beenfor it if the group was pro-Israel?

I get really irritated with the feminist communitysometimes. Oy vey.

God Who blessed our foreparents Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Rachel,and Leah, may God bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who standguard over our land and the cities of our God, from the border of the Lebanonto the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Arabia,on the land, in the air, and on the sea.

Maythe Almighty cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down beforethem. May the Blessed Holy One preserve and rescue our fighters from everytrouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may God sendblessing and success in their every endeavor.

MayGod lead our enemies under our soldiers’ sway and may God grant them salvationand crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: Forit is the Lord your God, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you tosave you.

Nowlet us respond: Amen.

Am Yisrael Hai (the nation of Israel lives).

Star of Davida Interviews Mohelet Stacy Rubtchinsky

2011-09-19T20:34:00.002-04:00

There has been debate in theJewish community since the time of the Egyptian enslavement as to whether ornot a woman can perform a brit milah(ritual circumcision). Most opinions believe that they can. In recent years,women have embraced the ability to perform the brit milah ceremony and become mohelot(female circumcisers). One such woman is Stacy Rubtchinsky,a Massachusettsmohelet who I had the honor ofinterviewing

Did you aspire to be a doctorwhen you were a child, or did you fall into it?

I have wanted to be a doctorsince I was a young child. Then, I went to college and did not like chemistryand did not like the competition in the pre-med classes, so I stopped beingpre-med and instead studied linguistics and cognitive sciences. I learned a lotof different languages and loved my studies. When I graduated, I taughtelementary school for two years and during that time, I remembered my passionfor medicine and so, I went back to school to finish those dreaded pre-med coursesand went to medical school.

Why did you become a mohelet?

Being a mohelet is aperfect fit for me. I love being a doctor and have the skills to perform safe,quick circumcisions. I also love being Jewish and practicing the rituals andtraditions associated with our religion. On top of that, I love being aneducator. When I go into families homes, I am a Jewish ambassador who has theopportunity to teach them about the beauty of this ritual into their lives

Does your family - parents,husband, children - support you?

My parents and husband and fourchildren all love that I am a mohelet!

Do you find that being femaleadds or detracts from your role as mohelet?

I find that the families who callme are not looking for the stereotypical Orthodox mohel. They arelooking for a modern, traditional, spiritual, painless ceremony andcircumcision and that is what I can bring them. I think that being afemale adds to the spirituality and warmth of the ceremony. I think that beinga mother also adds to my credibility (I hear “If you could circumcise yourown twin boys, then I trust you to circumcise my son” all the time).

Do you have an opinion on howgirls should be welcomed in the Jewish community in a celebration parallel to abrit milah?

Absolutely! I have twodaughters and had beautiful ceremonies for each of them. I chose to have theirceremonies at Havdalah (the ceremonial separation between Sabbath and weekday), since it is a time of transition andrebirth of the week, just as a new soul in our world is a time of rebirth. Theceremonies are a time for a community to come together and welcome a child andexpress it’s hopes and dreams for the baby's future. It is a wonderful time ofcelebration!

What advice would you give toother women who want to follow your lead and pursue a position as mohelet?

My advice to anyone who wants tobe a mohelet is to go to a lot of britot and learn what you wouldwant if the ceremony were your own. Then study with your rabbi/cantor/educatorand learn the halakha (Jewish law) behind brit milah. Mostimportantly, though, during the process of training and thereafter remember whyyou pursued this wondrous journey. If you do that, you will always hold on tothe passion that brought you to your dream!

Woma/i/o/u/yn Power?

2011-09-12T20:54:00.002-04:00

As a rule, I like to becontroversial and cause a stir, especially when it involves feminism. Afterall, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich had it right when she said well-behaved womenseldom make history. About a year ago, I even went through a phase when Icalled God She instead of He. (At this point, I realize that God has no gender,and avoid using pronouns when referring to the Holy One.) Despite this, I nevergot into the whole womyn thing.

In the 1970s, a number offeminists felt that because the word woman contains man, itdefines femininity as a diminutive of masculinity. As a result, they began tospell woman and women differently. (The most popular variantspellings are woman as womyn and women as wimmin, or woman as womon and womenas womyn.) In theory, I absolutely love this, and would totally begin using thealternate spellings, especially on tests and papers to freak my teachers out.

However, I’m just not buying it.In Old English, the word man was gender-neutral, like persontoday. A woman was a wifman, a female person, and a man was a werman, a male person.Throughout time, werman was shortened to man and wifman was changed to woman.So in reality, the word woman is not in any way a diminutive of the wordman; they both mean person, just specifying the gender. So I’ll be usingwoman for the foreseeable future.

The word person, whilesounding like it comes from a masculine root (per son), also has an innocuousorigin; it comes from the Latin word persona, meaning mask. SoI’m also not into spelling it persyn. (For the record, I’ve neveractually seen persyn - I’m just nipping the issue in the bud.)

Human, however, isproblematic for a feminist. It comes from Latin for Homo sapiens, whichmeans wise man. No, not wise person - wise MAN. Soessentially, when you say “I’m a human,” you’re saying “I’m a dude.” I thinkI’ll be spelling it humyn from now. (Look for an update on how freakedout my teachers are when I write it on tests!)

When I first discovered Women of the Wall, an organization of women that want to be able to pray at the KotelHaMa’aravi (Western Wall), I saw that they call themselves NashotHaKotel in Hebrew. It never occurred to me that the correct plural for womenin Hebrew is nashim, not nashot. Usually, -im is themasculine plural of a masculine word, and -ot is the feminine plural ofa feminine word. Nashim, which is a plural of a feminine word (the onefor woman) is an exception to the rule. (There are many.) “It is a pro-femaleassertion that seeks to remove the linguistic dependency of the word woman orwomen on the word man or men,” the WOW website says.

I totally understand that motivation, and I completely stand by it. I’ve started to use the word nashotin my own personal notes in Judaic classes, and I plan on continuing to dothat. (Just not in Hebrew language classes. The teacher would probably thinkI’m an absolute idiot for pluralizing a word as simple as woman wrong,and take off points.)

So, fellow women, people, humyns, and nashot - let's band together and fight for feminism!

Star of Davida Interviews Care Bears on Fire

2011-09-08T20:36:00.004-04:00

Women have always been important in music. In biblical times, women like Deborah and Hannah composed songs of thanks for God. In more recent times, women have consistently been a hugely important presence in the music industry (for the good and bad). Star of Davida had the honor of interviewing Sophie, the lead singer of Care Bears on Fire, a girl group that won't turn their music down.

What first got you into music?

My mom was a musician when shewas young. She’s not anymore, but that made it an option for me, being a musicianjust seemed really natural. I was always passionate about music.

How did you and bandmates Izzyand Jena firstmeet?

Izzy and I have known each othersince kindergarten, and we made the band when we were nine. We met Jena two years ago, whenwe were in ninth grade.

Why did you decide to become aband, especially at such a young age?

We had similar taste in music thatwas unusual for nine-year-olds, so we sort of latched onto each other.Izzy went to Rock and Roll Camp for Girls in Portland and learned how to play the drums,and I was learning how to play the guitar, so we decided to make a band.

What inspired the name CareBears on Fire?

We were nine when we decided onthe name, and we were going for something different. As I get older and thinkabout it, the names starts off sort of sweet and innocent and then defies theexpectation of what’ll follow, just like young girls aren’t expected to makemusic.

Did you ever anticipate thatyou would sing professionally?

Not when we first started. It’sreally exciting.

I understand that the three ofyou decided not to drop out of school, and instead balanced your careers withschool. Why didn’t you just give up on education?

Education is important to us. Ilove to learn and enjoy school, as weird as that sounds. We’ve been lucky thatwe’ve had success, and I hope it carries me, but I have non-music aspirations too.

Like what?

Writing and journalism, andfeminism.

So you consider yourself afeminist?

Totally. I always liked riot grrrlmusic, Bikini Kill and bands like that. My aha moment came when I wasperforming at a tribute show for Kathleen Hanna, the lead singer of BikiniKill, which was an amazing experience. I felt like I had finally found acommunity of people who were interested in riot grrrl and feminism, and whowere supportive of me and of other female musicians. I had been interested infeminism and riot grrrl before, but finding out that I was far from the onlyperson interested in these “dead” topics made me so much more confident in myopinions and in my ability to act on them.

Do you find that a lot ofpeople in the music industry have feminist leanings?

We’ve mostly been in the riotgrrrl scene with people who were equally influenced by the movement, so we’vebeen lucky. There are definitely a lot of feminists in music, but there havebeen musicians we’ve shared the stage with that aren’t.

Your music clearly containsstrong girl-power themes. Do you view your music as part of the feministmovement?

I hope so! The riot grrrlmovement was in the 90s, but if I can have a role in continuing the movementand being part of the legacy, that’s my dream come true. It’s not a deadmovement, not gone, musicians and activists are still inspired by it.

You recently created Grrrl Beat, an online zine. What inspired it?

I had my feminism aha moment overthe past year, and I wanted a place to find other people who are similar to meand share my opinions. I didn’t realize how many girls do similar things andcreate their own feminist blogs. I hadn’t found the community of people withsimilar interests until now, and it was cool for me to bump into that.

Are your friends feministsalso?

I’m starting a feminist group atmy school now, but people are mostly afraid of the f word. Some other studentsactually threatened to make a patriarchy club in response, which I thought waspretty funny.

Do your parents support all ofyour endeavors?

Definitely. As far as music,they’ve been driving me to shows for six years, they help so much. They’rereally supportive of Grrrl Beat too, they’re really great people to talk to toform ideas.

Who are some of your musicalinfluences?

Riot grrrl, definitely. AlexTurner’s lyrics are really beautiful. Conor Oberst and Patti Smith have really influenced me, too.

Do you have any idea what yournext album will sound like?

I think it’s too early to saydefinitively, but I do think it will be different. I hope to experiment withnew instrumentation, and see where that takes me. We write all of our ownmaterial, and I think I am more open to writing different types of songs than Iwas on previous albums, and being more direct about feminism and equality in mylyrics.

What inspires your style andfashion?

Vintage is cool, punk fashion hasreally inspired me. I go shopping in vintage stores like Beacon’s Closet andBuffalo Exchange. I like going shopping when we travel too, when we were in LAand shopping on Melroselike every other store is vintage. Looking over my clothes is like a chronicleof our journeys.

What advice do you have foraspiring female singers?

It’s important to get yourself heard.Don’t let people stand in the way of making whatever music inspires you,especially for girls.

Don't forget that the Star of Davida essay contest is offering copies of Care Bears on Fire's CD Get Over It! as the prize for the three winning essays!

What JWA Means to Me

2011-09-05T20:14:00.000-04:00

The Jewesses with Attitude blogrecently had a makeover! I’m not used to the new format yet (it takes me awhile to get used to change - when they remodeled my local Walgreens, I was confused for weeks), but I like what I see so far. The blog is muchsleeker, and I love the addition of the photos of Jewesses with attitude at thetop of the page. As part of the new makeover, JWA asked bloggers towrite about what the blog means to them.

I first became involved infeminism the year before I went into high school, when I was working on a paperabout the Second Wave. Dorky as it sounds, reading books like The FeminineMystique lit a fire in me that I couldn’t extinguish. As a result, I beganto identify as a feminist. I didn’t think it was compatible with Judaism,though, especially not Orthodoxy. It made me feel uncomfortable to think of onewhen I thought of the other. I completely compartmentalized myself: one box wasfor my devotion to women’s rights, and the second box was where I kept Judaism.The two were equal parts of my identity, but separate, never overlapping.

As I did more research on theSecond Wave, the fact that so many feminists were Jews really interested me. AsI did research on women like Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Alix Kates Shulman,and Shulamith Firestone, I stumbled upon the Jewish Women’s Archive. It greatlyhelped my research on many of these prominent women, and I still use it as asource when I’m writing historical papers. I’ll also log on every once in awhile just to read up on assorted Jewish women from the past.

While I loved the Archive atfirst sight, it was the Jewesses with Attitude blog that fascinated me. I hadnever seen any sort of blog or website dedicated to celebrating Jewish womenfrom a feminist perspective, and the idea drew me in. I began borderline-obsessivelyreading past posts, drinking in the Jewish feminism that I had been isolatedfrom for so long. Since it was the first Jewish feminism I was exposed to, andthe first feminist blog I officially followed, it greatly shaped my attitudesand opinions. Because feminism is something I want to dedicate my entire lifeto, I don’t think it’s melodramatic when I say that JWA truly changed my life.(Okay, maybe it’s a little melodramatic. But it’s still true.)

I eventually found other Jewishfeminist outlets, and even went on to create my own, but I’ll always have aspecial place in my heart for JWA. I’m glad that I can call myself a feistyJewess with attitude because of it.

Theater Review: Baby It's You!

2011-09-01T22:25:00.002-04:00

I’ve been absolutely dying to seethe musical Baby It’s You! for a while now, and was thrilled when Ifinally got tickets to see the show. It tells the story of Florence Greenberg,a Jewish New Jersey housewife-turned-music industry mogul. After discovering anAfrican-American four-member girl group at her daughter’s school, she namesthem the Shirelles and produces their first record. This becomes the initialstep of Florence Greenberg’s successful career as a music executive and recordlabel owner, and the beginning of a long road of choices she must make.

The musical explores manyfeminist themes; Beth Leavel, who plays Florence,even said that “it’s a great woman’s story…Florence…followed her passion. And I’m soinspired by that.” Crystal Starr Knighton, who plays a Shirelle, said, “Florence was amazing. Imean, to have a woman back then, when men ruled everything, just take centerstage and say ‘look, this is what I’m gonna do,’ and bringing us four ladiesand making us into the first girl group, she has an amazing story.”

When theaudience is first introduced to Florence,she’s in the kitchen with her husband Bernie, who can’t understand his wife’sdesire to do anything more than drive him to the train and take care of theirdaughter and blind son. Despite Bernie’s disapproval, Florence creates her first record company,sells it, and establishes a new one. Florence’s fate was that of most career womenin the 1960s (and unfortunately, the 2000s also), as she was forced to choosebetween attending recording sessions and being with her family. Her son spenttime with her by writing songs for the Shirelles, but her daughter was oftenneglected. Bernie also resented Florence’snewfound passion and the attention it took away from him.

Racial tensions were alsoapparent throughout the show, often intertwined with women’s issues. Early inthe Shirelles’ career, Florencepartnered with Luther Dixon, a successful African-American songwriter, and becameromantically involved with him. When he first approached her about writing forthe Shirelles, he explained that no one would take Florence seriously becauseshe was a woman, just like his talents were dismissed because of his race;between the two of them, they could make up for the discrimination. When Berniefound out that the two were more than just business partners, he called Florence and said, “Withall the yiddels in the business, you had to pick a shvartza?”

When the Shirelles were on tourand performing in pre-civil rights south, they were forced to stay in a hotelon the seedy side of town rather than the fancy hotel across the street fromthe theater. When Florenceheard, she moved to their hotel, despite Luther’s hesitation. “If it’s goodenough for them, it’s good enough for me,” she explained.

When I found out that BabyIt’s You! got poor reviews, I was shocked. I absolutely loved it, and theaudience seemed to feel the same way as I did - at the end of the show, thecast sang a few oldies, and everyone was dancing in their seats. New YorkTimes theater critic Charles Isherwood dismisses the musical’s premise asyet another Broadway show for baby boomers, comparing it to a “PBS pledge-nightspecial…devoted to oldies but goodies,” among sarcastic quips and rarecompliments. I checked out Isherwood’s remarks on Million Dollar Quartet,another Mutrux/Escott jukebox musical about 1960s singers, and his comment was“It…recalls PBS documentaries…but the sometimes canned storytelling gets thejob done.” Why is it that a play about four male singers can be PBSesque, but aplay about four female singers and their female agent not? I doubt thatIsherwood was purposely being sexist - he does say that the musical “at leastoffers a distaff twist” and calls Florencea “proto-feminist heroine.” However, it still bothers me that Caucasian men canbe celebrated on Broadway, but African-American and Jewish women are shunted tothe side.

Again, I thoroughly enjoyed BabyIt’s You!, and wish it was staying on Broadway longer - it’s only playinguntil September 4. Get your tickets before it’s too late!

NWLC's Pregnant and Parenting Students Conference Call

2011-08-29T23:27:00.001-04:00

I recently attended a conferencecall through the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) titled “Know Your Rights: AConference Call for Pregnant and Parenting Students.” It was moderated byMelanie Ross Levin, NWLC’s senior outreach manager, and the two presenters wereJeannette Pai-Espinosa (president of the National Crittenton Foundation) andLara Kaufmann (NWLC’s senior counsel).

You can read my full notes here,or listen to the actual call here. In short, the conference call discussed the rights that pregnant and parentingwomen have with regard to education. Lara Kaufmann explained how Title IXprotects students, faculty, and staff at schools with federal funding from sexdiscrimination and how it applies to pregnant and parenting students. Jeannette Pai-Espinosa introduced herorganization, explaining how it provides trauma-informed services to pregnantand parenting women. Afterwards, the two answered questions that participantssent in.

I’m not pregnant or parenting,nor do I have any intention to be either while I’m still in school, but Inonetheless found the conference call absolutely fascinating and really enlightening.I knew that Title IX did more than protecting women’s rights in athletics, butI had no idea that it was the basis of pregnant and parenting students’ rightto equal education. It also never occurred to me that a pregnant student shouldbe treated like a student with any other temporary medical condition, sincethat’s in essence what pregnancy is.

Ms. Kaufmann mentioned severalcommon violations of Title IX relating to pregnant and parenting students, andanswered many questions about them, too. She stressed the fact that schoolshave to work with pregnant/parenting students in order to best accommodatetheir needs, whether it’s dragging their feet regarding makeup work or properlycounseling students for the future.

I was surprised that nobody mentionedthe recent case in Arkansas,where a teen mother who was valedictorian was forced to share the title,presumably because she is a black single parent. On one hand, I can understand thata school wouldn’t what to recognize a pregnant or parenting student (that goesfor girls and boys), since an administration wouldn’t want to seem like it’sencouraging students to have unprotected sex. However, a GPA and subsequenthonor shouldn’t have anything to do with a student’s personal life.

Melanie Ross Levin asked all theparticipants in the call to take action to ensure the pregnant and parentingstudents are given the rights they deserve. One way to do this is fororganizations to sign the NWLC petition in support of the Pregnant and Parenting Students Access toEducation Act of 2011. This bill, originally proposed in 2009, will greatlyeven the playing field for pregnant and parenting students. (You can read moreabout it here.)The petition will be sent to the bill’s sponsors, Jared Polis and Judy Chu.Your organization can sign on here.If you don’t have an organization to sign on, you could always write to Reps.Polis and Chu independently.

I dedicated one of my first poststo Fraydel bat Faigel zikhrona l’brakha (may her memory be blessed) an amazing womanwho was actually thrown out of law school because she became pregnant (whilemarried, mind you). In previous generations, it was totally accepted foremployers to fire women because they were pregnant. That’s why I think it’s sogreat that pregnant and parenting women have advocates, and are fighting fortheir right to have an education. If women with children can’t get a goodeducation, they can’t get good jobs, and they can’t make great salaries, sothey can’t afford to go back to school, so they can’t get a better job…etc.Isn’t it easier to stop the vicious cycle before it starts?

DWS For President!

2011-08-26T18:18:00.001-04:00

As an Orthodox Jewish feminist, Ihave a foot in two worlds. “What comes first, though?” someone once asked me.“Are you a feminist who happens to be a Jew or a Jew who happens to be afeminist?” I responded that I am both; I can’t choose which is more importantto me, my religion or feminism. They are equal parts of my identity. It can,however, complicate who I support politically. The only candidate I’veencountered so far that meets all of my criteria is Debbie Wasserman Schultz,and I would definitely back her if she ran for president.

The Middle East Crisis willdefinitely be a deciding factor in the 2012 presidential election. As a Jew, Israel is very close to my heart, and I willonly back a candidate who supports Israel with every fiber of his/herbeing. Debbie Wasserman Schultz states emphatically on her website that she is“a staunch supporter of the State of Israel and her citizens’ right to live inpeace and security.” Many politicians, especially liberals, criticize Israel, but Wasserman Schultz understands that Israel and America have a symbioticrelationship that must be valued. She also knows that it is possible to havepeace in the Middle East; however, both theIsraelis and Palestinians have to be truly willing to make honest negotiations.

While it doesn’t look likewomen’s issues will be a major aspect of the upcoming election, it is veryimportant to me personally. As a woman, feminist, and human, I will only supporta candidate who wholeheartedly believes that women deserve equal rights. WassermanSchultz advocates for equality in the workplace, and voted for the PaycheckFairness Act.

As a female, I closely analyzecandidates’ opinions on women’s health. Reproductive rights are the core of anytruly feminist candidate, and Wasserman Schultz fits the bill: she supportswomen’s right to have access to birth control, and is pro-choice. Because I amJewish, breast cancer awareness is especially important to me; the risk ofcontracting the illness is 32% higher for Jewish women than those of thegeneral population. Wasserman Schultz is a breast cancer survivor who hassupported legislation that educates girls and women about their bodies,especially regarding breast health and early detection.

She also supports gay marriageand wants the Defense of Marriage Act repealed. LGBTQ rights are extremelyimportant to me, since I believe that every human being deserves the sametreatment under the law. I spent numerous hours campaigning for the passage ofthe gay marriage bill in New York,and I will happily back a candidate who supports it, too.

Debbie Wasserman Schultzrepresents everything that I’m looking for in a presidential candidate:pro-Israel, pro-women’s health, pro-choice, and pro-LGBTQ rights. I know it’san odd grouping of political positions, but I’ve always been a little unusualin my views. I know that Wasserman Schultz isn’t running for president any timesoon, but I look forward to the day that she does.

Star of Davida Interviews Susannah Heschel

2011-08-23T14:20:00.003-04:00

As someone who wants to pursue a PhD and hopes to teach feminist theory during her retirement, I greatly respect women and men who teach at the university level. One such woman is Susannah Heschel. In addition to being a Jewish Studies professor at Dartmouth University, Dr. Heschel is an ardent feminist. She has written several books, including On Being a Jewish Feminist, and contributed to dozens of feminist publications. Star of Davida had the honor of interviewing this amazing woman.

I know you must get this a lot, but do you feel that you’re living out your father’s legacy?
I’ve never thought of it that way. I think he was Jewish in way that’s different than most people think and are, so I do feel influenced by him in that respect.

What was your inspiration to get involved in feminism?
I think that if you’re born a woman with a mind and an independent spirit and a sense of courage, you’re a feminist. I took myself seriously, so I felt that it wasn’t right that I should be excluded from things that are important, both religiously and secularly.

I understand that it was suggested that you become a rabbi. Why didn’t you become one when the option became available to women?
I did look at the Reform movement, but I didn’t feel that I was a Reform Jew. I’ve never even been to a service, but I do admire the Reform movement. At the time I was young and hadn’t been exposed, and it didn’t seem right for me. Then I started graduate school and I loved what I was doing, and I felt that I was intellectually suited for academic work, that it was asking the kinds of critical historical questions that were appealing and interesting to me. At the same time I’ve always had moments when I wish I’d become a rabbi.

Why did you pursue a PhD in Religious Studies?
I’m interested in religion and religious thought and its history, the history of biblical scholarship and why scholars construct the text the way they do. I started understanding why the Bible was constructed the way it was, like why the Protestant scholars that shaped the field of Hebrew Bible studies was significant. I love the prophets, and I’m sure that was because of my father and the civil rights movement, so that was my interest originally. When I studied the prophets on an academic level I realized the scholarship on the prophets was a problem, sometimes they were called hysterics or epileptics or people incapable of love or that they have nothing to do with Judaism, that they were just precursors to Jesus, things like that. I was learning in a university not religious area.

Is this in any way a feminist issue?
Very much. It was always clear to me. When I was a child I used to say to people, God doesn’t want me to sit behind a curtain, men want it - it just seemed so true to me. Things get constructed for women that serve men’s interests. The issue for me was who controls the discourse. It doesn’t matter if rabbis say something positive about women, what matters is who are the rabbis, who’s doing the talking. We hear only men talking, not women, and that’s a problem. The issue is who’s having the conversation.

You’ve written two books about the connection between Jesus and Judaism in Germany, and anti-Semitism in general. Why do you think this is such an important topic to explore?
It’s important to understand the roots of our scholarship and our academic thinking, and to try to examine what’s logical and what needs to be altered so we can make advances in our knowledge. I think scholarship is very much linked to culture and our self-understanding. Everything I’ve been saying has a feminist agenda, to expose discourse and understand where the biases come from so we can move beyond them.

What are some ways to move beyond the biases?
Recognition is very important, and articulation, but the other thing that has to do with it is the emotional valence. For example, if we come across something anti-Semitic, we can be serious about it and examine its roots and implications, but we also have to pull the sting out. It can be through shame or humor, there are different approaches one can take to change attitudes. When I published my book on Jewish feminism, beforehand I got really angry about stuff said about women. When Mortimer Ostow, a very sexist theorist on anti-Semitism, gave the keynote at Conservative conference about status of women, what he said was horrible and I paced for days, I was so enraged. Then I published my book and I went around lecturing, and when I would quote him and people would laugh at him. I found I could make people laugh with how ludicrous his sexism was, and that’s changed things for me.

So I understand that you were just on a sabbatical. What were you doing with your time?
I’m writing book on the history of Jewish scholarship on Islam.

I knew that you were involved in Jewish-Islamic relations, since you convened a series of four international conferences of scholars in the fields of Jewish studies and Islamic studies. What do you think the most important thing you learned from them is?
There are quite a few things. Comparing feminist work in Islam and Judaism, there are some good techniques and arguments that are used by Muslim feminists that could be helpful to Jewish feminists. One example is the understanding that God in Islam isn’t beneath anything and not associated with anything, God is one and at the top, and if you try to associate something with God that’s called heresy. One Islamic feminist argument is that if you say men are above women then you’re saying men are like God, and that would be heresy. Another thing that stood out to me was the issues raised by migrations, what do Muslims do when they to a different country, how do they take identity with them and make a new one, what’s to be preserved and what’s to be changed? It’s a problem that Muslims and Jews face. For Jews in Diaspora, things have been quite diverse - Jews in Ottoman Turkey practiced Judaism differently than those in the US.

At the Women’s Liberation and Jewish Identity conference in March, you said that patriarchy isn’t Jewish. I can see many people disagreeing with that. What do you mean by that?
I say it’s not Jewish because we don’t have a monopoly on it. It’s within the culture we live in and we as Jews have adapted to it, we’ve swallowed it.

I only recently found out that it was your idea to put an orange on a Seder plate to represent solidarity with Jewish homosexuals. What inspired this? Why an orange?
First of all, I wasn’t raised with biases against gay people, my parents had gay friends. It was just normal to me, it wasn’t an issue. No one made a particular distinction. In the era of AIDS, when I grew up, people were saying such terrible things about the gay community, and I felt that we needed to speak out. This was my way. Oranges have segments and are attached, they’re all linked into one whole, one community. We’re all together and we can’t eliminate, we can’t just take out one piece. At the Seder, everyone would take a piece of orange and we’d all say the brakha (blessing) on the fruit together. In the moment of a religious occasion, that’s where you say something like that, not just at a lecture. Then we’d spit out the seeds of homophobia.

Do you have any words of advice for the next generation’s feminists?
First of all, feminism is about women. Of course there are lots of issues about Jewish life and fairness and equality and so forth that need to be addressed and changed, but this is a movement about women and women’s rights, and the battle isn’t over. I’m still invited to conferences where I’m the only woman speaking, and my colleagues still have conferences and research projects where all the participants are men. Exclusion and patronizing issues still exist, even at the senior level. It’s hard because in my generation, there aren’t a lot of professional women. We’re still figuring out how to act and what it means to be a professional. Some women my age are inappropriate in professionalism either because they’re silly or very cold because they think that’s the only way to hold their own. It’s a problem. A lot of men of my age cohort never had a woman professor and never confronted feminist issues, and it’s hard for me to work with them. I feel my work is better received by younger scholars in my field. On one hand I’m glad because it gives it extra life, but it makes me sad about men of my generation. We’ve all had these experiences. There are men who act inappropriately in the workplace and also others who are so nervous that they will be inappropriate that they avoid women. I count the number of women who contributed to an editing book, who are thanked in the acknowledgements in a book, and if I see a certain field with too many men, I tell them that it’ll die because there are too few women - women are half the PhDs nowadays. Everyone who writes about my father are men and the conferences about him are dominated by men. It really annoys me and I don’t know what to do about it, but I feel really offended by it.

How can we fix the problems?
We have to talk about it, pressure people, and recognize that this is the issue. Men should be part of the solution, they should speak about it as well. It’s hard to determine how to do it sometimes - do we shame people? Do we make it a joke? Once I went to people at a conference I was speaking at and told them that I was the only woman there, and if they didn't get more women speakers I would wear a burqa. They did get more women, but I shouldn’t have been the only one saying that. We have to agitate, make sure people are aware.

My Darling Readers

2011-08-17T21:36:00.000-04:00

I love you all, my darling readers. When I first created Star of Davida, I figured I’d get a couple hits after a few months, and that would be really awesome. I never thought people would actually read this blog, and certainly not comment on it. (I certainly never thought that people on the caliber of Maggie Anton or A Mother in Israel would.) So I love you all for reading, and commenting. Even when your comments aren’t so nice, like the following dear reader’s.

youre f**king r****ded. first of all hop off your feminist bulls**t because NOONE GIVES A FLYING F**K! two C U Next Tuesday is calling A DUDE a c**t and your having problems with the song because of its title you dont deserve to be graced with keshas amazing music thank you very much. We R Who We R is great for dancing i hate when people call songs with hot dancing beats party songs but its also inspirational to be whoever the f**k you wanna be and do you sooo.... GROW A PEAR is fighting for best song on the record with Blow the track is f**king incredible Kesha does not want a guy thats a p***y no one does she phrased very frankly so that NO ONE is confused. shes telling a story andd dont tell her to tell it. its very cute and funny and is f**king great. and you forgot to review the Bilboard Remix. and Cannibal is freaky but open your mind just a little its about being a maneater getting what you want etcetera the delivery isnt great but its a good track and i feel the message its

I’d like to address this comment on a piece-by-piece basis. (For the record, my original post on Ke$ha is here, and my second post, which this comment was towards, is here.)

youre f**king r****ded. first of all hop off your feminist bulls**t because NOONE GIVES A FLYING F**K!

In only seventeen words, Dear Reader manages to show some great character traits. I must have missed the newest MLA handbook, because I wasn’t aware that capitalization and punctuation was optional. Her* vocabulary is absolutely amazing (the f word twice! Aren’t her parents proud of her?), and she’s extremely sensitive towards the mentally challenged. It’s clear she’s a big friend of feminism, too.

*I'm calling Dear Reader a female just because it's easier. Dear Reader could be a he, I don't know.

two C U Next Tuesday is calling A DUDE a c**t and your having problems with the song because of its title you dont deserve to be graced with keshas amazing music thank you very much.
Dear Reader, have no fear. I understand what “C U Next Tuesday” is saying. (I know that Ke$ha lyrics can be almost on the level of Shakespeare, but I think I managed to analyze them correctly.) If I can’t appreciate the fact that the song uses the worst word in the book, maybe I can’t appreciate Ke$ha’s music, either. Aw, darn. I know I’m missing out on something real special there.

We R Who We R is great for dancing i hate when people call songs with hot dancing beats party songs but its also inspirational to be whoever the f**k you wanna be and do you sooo....

I’ll accept this point, since I know that Ke$ha wrote this after she heard about Tyler Clementi. While “We R Who We R” sounds like an annoying party song (and evidences that Ke$ha has the same MLA handbook as Dear Reader), it does have its positives. Nonetheless, it’s not particularly feminist.

GROW A PEAR is fighting for best song on the record with Blow the track is f**king incredible Kesha does not want a guy thats a p***y no one does she phrased very frankly so that NO ONE is confused. shes telling a story andd dont tell her to tell it. its very cute and funny and is f**king great.

Well, at least I’ll die knowing that Dear Reader likes songs that completely degrade womankind. (Seriously, all you feminist folks reading this. Read the lyrics for yourself, and tell me if I’m right or what.) As I believe I stated in my original post about the song, wanting a man that can support you is certainly a worthwhile message to impart to girls* (especially with current domestic violence statistics), but saying that “I just can’t date a dude with a vag” IS NOT THE WAY TO SAY IT. She can tell her story all she wants, but not by insulting a man by calling him a woman.

*I’m not trying to ignore homosexual girls here, but Ke$ha is singing from a heterosexual point of view.

and you forgot to review the Bilboard Remix.

Yeah, I know. I mentioned “Animal” in my original Ke$ha post, and didn’t see the point in talking about it again.

and Cannibal is freaky but open your mind just a little its about being a maneater getting what you want etcetera the delivery isnt great but its a good track and i feel the message its

Again, Dear Reader, I understand what it’s saying. God graced me with the ability to analyze Ke$ha songs. And it’s still a freaky song that I don’t like.

Please, readers, don’t be put off by this post. I love it when you comment, and I promise I won’t be mean to you and rip your comments up like this, unless they’re as inane as this one.

Shining Stars of Davida: Kirsten Gillibrand

2011-08-14T19:59:00.002-04:00

Kirsten Gillibrand is one of the 17 women in the Senate. Originally a member of the House, she became a senator when she was appointed to fill Hillary Clinton’s vacated Senate seat. While I didn’t really care one way or another at the time, as I’ve become more involved in the feminist and political worlds, I’m really happy that Gillibrand has the power that she does.

Above all, Gillibrand vehemently supports Israel, believing that the American-Israeli bond must remain whole and that America should protect Israel from its enemies. She supported Israel in the Gaza War, and is endorsed by AIPAC. She once said that “[Misleading UN] findings should not be used as ammunition against [Israel], a nation that has been forced to protect its families and children from Hamas attacks.” In 2010, she supported a $2 million fund to preserve the U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperative Agreement in the FY2011 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill.

Gillibrand is also very much a feminist. She is pro-choice, believes that women and girls deserve access to reproductive health care, and is against the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. If that’s not enough for you, she’s endorsed by NOW, Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and EMILY’s List.

Like pretty much everyone in Congress, Gillibrand is concerned about creating jobs and bolstering the economy. She believes that one of the best ways to reach that goal is to help women attain an equal economic status to men. She supported the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, (the first bill that Obama signed into law), which extends the amount of time workers have to file a lawsuit for pay discrimination. Gillibrand is also one of the most vocal supporters of the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that will make it a lot easier for victims of pay discrimination to sue their employers (among many other things). She advocates for small businesses and work flexibility, holding roundtable discussions to inform women about small business ownership and introducing the Family Work Flexibility Act, which will give a tax credit to businesses that allow their employees to telecommute.

The gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) continues to persist. This not only hurts women, but all of society, because there is a severe lack of math and science teachers. Gillibrand has introduced several bills to encourage more women to go into the sciences. They include the National STEM Education Tax Incentive for Teachers Act, which gives a tax credit to STEM teachers who work in low-income schools; the Undergraduate Scholarships for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Act (US STEM Act), which provides 2,500 undergraduate scholarships to low-income students who are interested in STEM; and the Roosevelt Scholars Act, which encourages students in mission-critical fields like medicine, law, and information technology to pursue a federal government job.

Because child care is important to working families, Gillibrand, along with Senator Barbara Boxer, are working to increase the benefits that the Dependent and Child Care Tax Credit provides. She also wants to give tax breaks for offices that have on-site child care or help their employees find it elsewhere, and tax credits to people who work in child care.

Gillibrand also created Off the Sidelines, an organization whose mission is to get women off the sidelines and involved in government and politics. Off the Sidelines believes that “more women need to embrace the fact that their voice matters and that they can make a difference,” whether from their living room or the Oval Office. The website encourages women to vote, talk about the issues, volunteer, run for office, mentor, and raise money. The whole organization is really awesome, and I think it’s great that it’s able to get so much publicity.

I dub Kirsten Gillibrand an inductee into the Shining Stars of Davida - strong women and men who make us feminists proud.

Girls and Computers

2011-08-12T14:38:00.002-04:00

I love computers. I always have. When I was pretty little, I even remember drafting editions of a newspaper on Word (the 97 version!). I loved even the most rudimentary paint program, and the Internet was a continual source of amusement and information (when I wanted it). Now, I’m extremely Web-connected. Like most teenagers of this era, I really couldn’t live without a computer or Internet connection anymore.

I was recently reading the National Council for Research on Women’s Balancing the Equation: Where Are Women and Girls in Science, Engineering, and Technology? (2001), a really cool publication that presents data about how women are doing in the sciences, from kindergarten to industry work. The research is a little bit old, but it’s still a great, really enlightening report. As I was reading, I was surprised to see the statistic that only 20% of students taking AP computer science are female, and this huge gender gap is attributed to the fact that girls feel uncomfortable in the “boyish” computer sciences.

This piece of information really shocked me. Computers were always a big presence in my life, and I always felt in my element working on them. I first learned how to use one in preschool. I remember working on the paint program pretty often and getting annoyed when my turn was over. Throughout elementary school, we had computer classes once a week, and my entire class looked forward to our time on the computer, even if we had to work on school stuff. Most of us had computers at home when we were younger, so we all felt extremely comfortable online. Once we got into the middle school years, we did more heavy-duty work on the computers at school. Everyone in my class had a PC or Mac at home, so we all felt relaxed with computers, especially when laptops became a popular school item. Now in high school, a lot of girls come from a no-computer background, but most of my classmates feel comfortable with them.

Balancing the Equation not only contains information and statistics about women and girls in the sciences, but also gives suggestions on how to fix the inequalities that persist. One of the solutions given to stop girls from feeling shy when it comes to computers is to have girls-only computer labs.

I went to a Modern Orthodox elementary and middle school, so we were coed up until fifth grade, and then we were separated by gender in most classes until graduation. As a result, I was only in a computer lab with boys when we were younger, and the work wasn’t terribly difficult or intimidating in any way.

If my classes had been coed in middle school and I had been in a computer lab with boys. Would I feel the same way towards computers as I do now? Would I feel so comfortable with them? Would I have ever taught myself basic HTML and Flash? Would my friends dislike computers?

It’s an interesting question slew of questions. I just hope that upcoming generations of girls won’t have to deal with them.

Boo on Breastfeeding

2011-08-08T20:52:00.002-04:00

My mom wasn’t able to breastfeed me. She blamed it on the fact that she was older when she gave birth, but she found out recently that because she has thyroid issues and a C-section, there was snowball’s chance in heck that she would be able to nurse. She tried for six weeks, but milk absolutely refused to come out.

That didn’t stop her sister, the card-carrying La Leche League member who nursed her son years after he had teeth, from torturing her about it, though. “How can you just let that bond that you create between your baby and you while you breastfeed go? Don’t you know that breastfed babies are smarter? And healthier! Because they have to suck harder, their faces get more developed and they become prettier, too!”

Okay. Personally? I think it’s all a load of garbage. I have no idea why the feminist movement thinks it’s liberating or whatever to breastfeed your child. To me, it’s one of the least liberating things a woman can do. She is literally shackling herself to her child for the first six months of his or her life, forcing herself to be on call 24/7 to feed the baby. It doesn’t matter if mommy’s a high-powered attorney who has to be in court tomorrow. She still has to wake up at three in the morning to nurse the baby.

To me, most of the pros of breastfeeding are cons or downright lies. I’ll only address the ones by darling aunt ever said to my mother, though, because I’d be writing a book about it if I didn’t limit myself.

Breastfeeding creates a bond between mother and baby: Please explain to me how having a baby tucked under your breast, out of sight, creates a bond. What if you’re in public and nursing with your baby under a blanket or sheet? How exactly does covering your baby up and keeping him or her completely out of your sight forge a bond? When a mother bottle feeds, she’s holding her baby in her arms, facing her child. Doesn’t it create a stronger bond then?

Breastfed babies are smarter: Oh, for the love of God. Not to toot my own horn here, but I’m pretty dang smart. I have an eight-page résumé, have won more competitions and contests than I can count, and when I took the SATs at age twelve, I scored so high that I was offered a one-course scholarship to NYU. You think if I had been breastfed my résumé would be nine pages by now?

Breastfed babies are healthier: I’ll use myself as an example again. After sixteen years of life, I’ve had one ear infection and one case of strep throat. Those were the only two times I’ve ever been on antibiotics. I’m rarely ever sick (thank God), and next to never take off school days for health reasons. So I guess if I had been breastfed, I never would’ve gotten that strep throat. Darn, I knew I shouldn’t have pooped in my mother’s womb and forced her to get that Caesarean. Blast those bad thyroid genes, too.

Breastfed babies are prettier: I’m not even gonna dignify this one with a response, it’s so stupid.

Let’s not forget all the cons of breastfeeding: the fact that a mother has to be up every two or three hours to feed the baby, both feeding and pumping can be extremely painful to do, it can be really awkward in public, weaning can be very difficult, plus dozens of other reasons.

Formula is extremely expensive, yes; I’m not going to deny it, because it’s fact. Especially once you have to buy the special non-allergenic ones. Considering the fact that breastfeeding is free, and all the related accoutrements are tax deductible at this point, formula prices skyrocket in comparison.

I know this article is extremely extreme. I wrote it like that purposely, because I daresay that someone like my aunt would write an ever stronger article for the opposite cause.

To be honest, at the end of the day, I feel that women should be able to breastfeed or formula feed - whatever floats their boat and makes the most sense for their situation. When with God’s help I have a daughter of my own, I have no idea what I’ll do. I’ll think about it when I have to. Whatever I end up doing, it’ll still annoy me that the IRS will give tax breaks on $50 breast pumps that can last as long as needed, but not on 32-ounce $30 baby formula that disappears pretty quick.

Tonight begins Tisha B'Av, the fast day that commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temple. May everyone have a meaningful and inspiring fast.

Shining Stars of Davida: Adele

2011-08-04T13:02:00.001-04:00

I think we all know that the media can greatly sway the public, for the good and bad. Part of the bad is how television, magazines, etc. have made a beauty standard that girls and women feel the need to conform to, leading to a plethora of women who feel uncomfortable with their bodies. There’s one pretty powerful woman in the music industry who hasn’t felt bad about her body: Adele.

Adele was born to a single teenage mother in London in 1988, and started singing at age four. She went to The BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology, where she was classmates with to-be performers Leona Lewis and Jessie J. After some of her music was posted on MySpace in 2006, she was contacted by XL Recordings, and signed with them quickly. It didn’t take long for her to become wildly successful, with her songs topping the charts and going multi-platinum. Her music was introduced in America in June 2008. The endeavor seemed like a failure until October, when she performed on the episode of Saturday Night Live Sarah Palin was on. By February, the album went gold in America. She has since become ninth richest British singer under 30.

I think that it’s absolutely amazing that Adele, who has this amazingly successful career, isn’t the typical size 2 celebrity. She says that she’s a 14/16, and is happy with that and has no intentions to change it. It really thrills me that there’s a singer who doesn’t conform to today’s beauty standards, but is still perfectly content with the way she looks. Jenny Craig commercials with smiling, thinner-than-before celebrities always kind of annoy me. I mean, I’m happy that they’re able to make themselves happier by losing weight. My mom lost 110 pounds, and I know how much it can mean to a person. But did Valerie Bertinelli really feel that the only reason she took control of her life was because she lost 40 pounds? And is thinning really just the only thing in the world that matters to Jason Alexander? It’s these “your weight defines who you are and if you’re overweight you’re a horrible person with a horrible life and you need to pay us to fix it for you” ad campaigns that tick me off.

And this is why I love Adele. She’s an absolutely amazing role model for girls today: she shows that you can be successful, have this great career, sing amazingly, and be beautiful while being a 14/16.

It kind of bothers me that Adele has to be praised for being the average American and British dress size (14), though. Why can’t we all just accept the fact that most women out there aren’t the super-skinny people we see on TV (like Jenny Craig commercials) and magazine ads? Why can’t we a view a 14/16 as beautiful? We use to be able to do that; Marilyn Monroe, the iconic sex symbol, was far from the size 2 celebrity that everyone seems to love nowadays.

Yeah, I know that the only reason beauty standards exist and are perpetuated is because people want to make money off of people’s insecurities. Ms. Craig is extraordinarily wealthy. So are Ms. Nutrisystem and Ms. Weight Watchers and all the other creators of diet programs. Let’s not forget the Ms. Atkins Diet and Ms. South Beach Diet and Ms. 17 Day Diet and all of those fad diets that are popular for five minutes, either.

I love Adele. I hope she never feels the pressure to lose weight; if she does choose to slim down, then I hope it’s her choice and her choice alone, not the choice of a manager or anyone else.

I dub Adele an inductee into the Shining Stars of Davida - strong women and men who make us feminists proud.

Star of Davida Interviews Michelle Cameron

2011-08-01T19:08:00.004-04:00

The first published woman author in America was Anne Bradstreet, who published her book of poems The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America in 1650. Ever since, millions of words have been penned by women authors. Recently, historical Jewish women's fiction has become popular, with dozens of writers researching and recording the lives of Jewish women of the past. Star of Davida had the honor of interviewing Michelle Cameron, the author of The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz, a richly dramatic fictional story of Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg's wife, Shira, a devout but rebellious woman who preserves her religious traditions as she and her family witness the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe.

I understand that you were inspired to write The Fruit of Her Hands after learning that you descend from Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg. What inspired you to research your family history?
It was actually sheer chance. I had finished promoting an earlier work (In the Shadow of the Globe, a verse novel fictionalizing Shakespeare’s life and loves) and was looking for a new project. A distant cousin of mine had created and published a comprehensive family tree, and I turned to it to see if I could find out more about the woman I was named for. As I opened the book, a story that my mother always told me - that we could trace our family tree back to the 1200s - was borne out. There was a brief, intriguing article about my 13th century ancestor, Meir of Rothenberg, that inspired me to look him up on Google. The more I read about him, the more I realized I had the makings of a wonderful novel.

It’s clear from reading the book that you’re very well-versed in both Torah and Talmud. Was this something you were raised with, or are you self-taught?
Definitely not raised with Torah and Talmud - I come from a very secular family! My knowledge in Torah comes from completing my high school studies in Israel, where Torah is a required subject. I would never have studied Talmud at all if it weren’t for the novel. It became such a central part of the plot that I knew I had to find someone to introduce me to it. Lucky for me, the associate rabbi at my synagogue was willing to help.

That’s really cool that you lived in Israel. How long were you there?
14 years. I was 15 when my parents moved there.

What inspired the move?
To Israel? My parents were firm Zionists who had tried to move there back in 1949. My father couldn't get work at that time (he was a chemical engineer). He was able to in 1973 (an auspicious year for a move)!

Back to the US? Professional concerns again. I was working as a writer in English and my husband (also a native American) as a lighting technician in films and TV. There seemed to be more we could do in the US.

Why did you choose the pasuk (verse) from Eishet Hayil to name the book after?
Ah, title hell! The original title of this novel was Daughter of Faith. Including the world “daughter” in a historical novel was trendy for a few years, though I really didn’t do it deliberately. My agent didn’t like that title and asked me to come up with a new one. After intense consideration and several flawed titles, I came up with Shira of Ashkenaz, which both of us really liked. So that was the title that was submitted to various publishing houses.

But when my editor accepted the novel, one of the first things she asked for was a new title for the book. She wanted something poetic or evocative, and was definitely open to something from Torah or Talmud. Eishet Hayil was an obvious place to look - but of course, naming the novel “Woman of Valor” would have been a cliché. I liked the symbolism inherent in Fruit of Her Hands, and my editor liked it as well. I rewrote a couple of places in the novel to make the title a natural extension of the story. However - soon after the book was published - I discovered that “the fruit of her hands” is a catch phrase for fundamentalist Christian woman who believe in being subservient to their husbands. Not at all what I intended! I can only hope that any woman who reads the novel thinking it will be a fundamentalist tract will have her eyes opened…

Why did you name the main character Shira? Was it a common name in the 1200s?
No, Shira definitely wasn’t a common name in the 1200s. But I first attempted to write another verse novel (similar to In the Shadow of the Globe). After I had written that book, I thought I had found my genre, and that everything new I wrote would be in the long poetic narrative format. But the material refused all my attempts to write that way. I tried a variety of different short formats - letters, diary entries - but the material insisted on being a historical novel.

Of course, when I was writing poetry, the name “Shira” - which means poetry or song in Hebrew - was completely fitting. By the time I realized I had a novel on my hands, I had been thinking of Shira as Shira too long - and couldn’t change the name.

There’s a big contrast that in the middle of terrible persecution, Talmud burnings etc., Jewish life thrived and a lot of halakhot (Jewish laws) were codified. Why do you think this irony was able to happen?
I talk about this a lot when I go on speaking engagements about the novel. Researching and learning about so many Jewish atrocities, you really do begin to wonder how we as Jews survived to this day. As I pondered this, I often considered what my two characters - Meir and Shira - taught me about the quality of Jewish life. Meir and his contemporaries, of course, kept Judaism thriving through their concentration on study and their desire to codify their customs and practices so that anyone, anywhere could remain a Jew, no matter where circumstances forced him or her to go. The women, on the other hand, helped the traditions stay alive through their care of their households and their love of their families.

Several times in the book, characters long for peaceable Judeo-Christian relations. Is this an important issue to you?
Oh, absolutely! One of the wonderful things about writing this book has been my readers - Jews and Christians alike - saying that they never knew about what Jewish life was like during this era and letting me know that it made a difference to how they perceived the long history of hatred and persecution. I really feel that it is only through mutual knowledge of our histories and our traditions that we will finally be able to live in peace with one another.

Do you describe yourself as a feminist?
Well, yes and no. Unlike my husband, who grew up in the 60s and strongly identifies with the women’s movement, it’s not the label I would usually use to identify myself. But I clearly live as a feminist, with or without the label.

Do you view The Fruit of Her Hands as a feminist work?
Well, yes. Shira was created deliberately as a strong woman and frankly, as an exception in her time. Her personality came about as a reaction to what I discovered about her husband. There is a two-volume publication that collects all of Meir’s letters (the fragments that exist). In there, I discovered a man who was very much a product of his age, who embraced the anti-woman philosophies of that period, particularly when it comes to allowing women to take part in religious ritual. I wanted someone who could debate with him - not necessarily win the arguments, because that would be anachronistic - but at least raise the issues.

I also understand that you wrote another book, By the Waters. Could you tell me a little more about that?
That novel is currently looking for a publisher and I hope to have good news in that regard soon. I was inspired by Psalm 137, which Shira recites as she watches the wagons loaded with volumes of Talmud move past her, heading for destruction. By the Waters, which takes place between the burning of the First Temple and the construction of the Second, is an intergenerational novel about conquest and exile, assimilation, longing for home, and the creation of a new form of Judaism.

If you're interested in reading The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz for yourself, you can purchase it here.

I also want to say that this is my 100th post!! To celebrate, here's a list of the top 100 feminist books and top 100 feminist movies.

Yitgadal V'Yitkadash Shemai Rabbah

2011-07-28T20:55:00.000-04:00

I feel very depressed. First, it was because of Esther Broner (July 8, 1930 – June 21, 2011), zikhrona l’vrakha (may her memory be blessed), the Jewish feminist who held the first women-only Seder (attendees included Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Gloria Steinem, and Phyllis Chesler) and wrote The Women’s Haggadah. Then it was Leiby Kletzky (July 29, 2002 – July 12, 2011), zikhron l’vrakha (may his memory be blessed), an Orthodox eight-year-old boy in Brooklyn who was brutally murdered. A couple days later, I heard about Betty Ford (April 8, 1918 – July 8, 2011), the First Lady who campaigned for the ERA, supported abortion rights, encouraged the president to promote women into leadership positions, and established the Betty Ford Center for addiction rehab. And I just learned about Inez Casiano (1926 – June 28, 2011), a founding member of NOW.

Why is God doing this to the Jewish/feminist/Jewish feminist communities? What are we supposed to learn from all the people who have died so recently?

Broner died on 19 Sivan (the Jewish month in June-July). According to Sefer Yetzirah, a book on Jewish esotericism, the month of Sivan is represented by the left foot. The left is considered physical, while the right is considered spiritual. Because Nissan, the month with Passover in it, is represented by the right foot, the two are considered complementary. During Passover, Queen Esther of Persia, Broner’s namesake, called for the Jews to fast before she approached Ahasuerus, in what we commemorate today as Ta’anit Esther. Where the biblical Esther fasted to ensure Jewish survival, Esther Broner celebrated that ability by creating a women’s Seder, where eating is a commandment. Broner’s life teaches us Jewish feminists that we have to live out the legacy of our foreparents, since it will enhance and augment the Jewish feminist movement.

Leiby Kletzky was murdered 10 Tammuz (the Jewish month in July-August), barely two weeks before his ninth birthday. His story ripped out the hearts of Jews and Gentiles alike; my mother and I spent a night sobbing in each other’s arms for him and his family. When Leiby was first missing, thousands of volunteers searched for him, and once his murder became known, Jews ranging from ultra-Orthodox to atheist came together, ahdut, in memoriam. Sefer Yetzirah says that the letter corresponding to Tammuz is het, which makes the ch sound (as in challah) that isn’t pronounceable in English. A het is made up of two different letters, zayin (the z sound) and vav (the v, o, or oo sound), connected by a thin bridge of sorts (as demonstrated here). The word Tammuz is tam, which means to connect, followed by a vav and a zayin, which make up a het. Just as Tammuz is a month of connection, Leiby gave the Jewish community ahdut. The way he brought Jews together is extremely sad, and if given a choice, I’m sure everyone would choose his life over ahdut, but if it happened this way, it was meant to be like this; we can’t fathom God’s ways. We must learn from what our Creator does, and we must learn from Leiby’s death to love your fellow Jew.

Neither Betty Ford nor Inez Casiano was Jewish, so it would be difficult to tie their lives and deaths into the Jewish calendar. However, both of their lives contain important messages that the next generation of feminists must learn from. Betty Ford openly supported controversial issues like abortion, and discussed things like marijuana and sex openly - and her approval rating was 75%! She shows us that we can loudly champion whatever is close to our hearts (including feminism), and people will still approve. Inez Casiano was very active in both the feminist movement and Hispanic workers’ rights movement, showing that a person can have two values (like Judaism and feminism) that complement each other.

May the memories of Esther Broner, Leiby Kletzky, Betty Ford, and Inez Casiano inspire people of every age, race, religion, and creed.

(A note on the title of this post, for all you non-Hebrew speakers: yitgadal v'yitkadash shemai rabbah are the first four words of the Mourners' Kaddish that has to be said for eleven months after a person's passing. They are translated as "May God's great Name grow exalted and sanctified.)

Black Holes of Davida: Allen West

2011-07-26T16:19:00.004-04:00

There’s been some serious drama going on in the House over the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan. Congress puts a limit on how much money the government is allowed to spend, and that amount will be reached in about a week. (Obama and Speaker of the House Boehner delivered a special address last night about it.) To fix this, Congress must raise the nation’s legal borrowing limit. Republicans are supporting the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan, which bars any increase in the debt ceiling unless Congress first passes a balanced budget amendment. It wouldn’t actually balance the budget; it just demands that the budget be balanced before the debt ceiling is raised. It would also negatively impact the economy and put Social Security and Medicare in danger, according to the White House communications director.

Democrats are against the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the pro-Israel, pro-choice Jewish woman who is the Democratic National Committee Chairperson, is no exception. A week ago, she said about Allen West, a Tea Partier, “The gentleman from Florida, who represents thousands of Medicare beneficiaries, as do I, is supportive of this plan that would increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries, unbelievable from a Member from South Florida.” She also said that the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan “slashes Medicaid and critical investments essential to winning the future in favor of protecting tax breaks for Big Oil, millionaires, and companies who ship American jobs overseas.”

West emailed Wasserman Schultz, CCing several other congresspeople, saying, “Look, Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up. Focus on your own congressional district! I am bringing your actions today to our Majority Leader and Majority Whip and from this time forward, understand that I shall defend myself forthright against your heinous characterless behavior…which dates back to the disgusting protest you ordered at my campaign hqs, October 2010 in Deerfield Beach. You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!”

I think everyone, even across party lines, would be just a little taken aback at West’s diatribe towards Wasserman Schultz. She did not say anything that deserved such a harsh response. Certainly West has a right to defend himself and his opinions and counter what she said, but he took it an eensy bit too far.

It’s clear that West’s invective is horrifying on any level, but I wouldn’t have written about it on a feminist blog if it hadn’t been for his last sentence: “You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!”

I’m assuming that West’s definition of being a lady is being polite and refined, a sweet little girl who blushes and giggles only speaks when spoken to. Well, guess what? Being a lady is totally overrated. It’s a heck of a lot more fun to say what you want to say when you want to say it, and the whole blushing and giggling thing gets really boring after a while. I just find it kinda sad that West will only respect women who act like that, and that he’ll call a woman who doesn’t “vile, unprofessional, and despicable,” accuse her of “heinous characterless behavior,” tell her to “shut the heck up.” If a male congressperson had said the same thing as Wasserman Schultz did, would West have responded the same way? I think we all know the answer to that one.

Feminists seriously need to work hard to end positive/negative perceptions of women. If women want to act polite and refined, they should be able to without criticism; if women want to say what they want to, they should be able to without criticism. They should be given respect from people of every gender, age, race, and creed for acting either way. We need to start calling people out when they say anything about how women should act, speak, dress, or anything else. It’s a woman’s choice, and she shouldn’t be judged because of it.

I dub Allen West an inductee into the Black Holes of Davida - people who let us feminists down by advocating misogyny, sexism, abuse, and other anti-woman thoughts and actions.

No-Cost Birth Control Matters!

2011-07-21T13:07:00.001-04:00

This post is part of the National Women's Law Center's Birth Control Blog Carnival.

Birth control has been important pretty much since the beginning of time. It’s discussed in the Torah, when Onan “spilled [his seed] on the ground” (Gen 38:9) in order to avoid impregnating his wife Tamar. Almost every ancient civilization used birth control in some form (including the Egyptians’ usage of crocodile dung as a diaphragm - I promise I’m not making that up). Most of the methods were forgotten by the Middle Ages, largely because of witch hunts and subsequent executions. People feared midwives’ knowledge of herbs and their uses (like as contraceptives), and often accused them of witchcraft. When women first began fighting for their rights in the 1800s, birth control became a feminist issue. Margaret Sanger established the first birth control clinic in 1921. The Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) decided that forbidding contraceptives to married couples is unconstitutional, and Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972) determined that the same applies to unmarried people. (Both cases helped Roe v. Wade out.)

Ever since the heyday of the Second Wave, feminists’ fight for accessible birth control has been fierce. In a couple months, the Department of Health and Human Services is going to decide which preventive services will be covered without a co-pay in new health insurance plans, and I think everyone reading this post wants to make sure that prescription birth control is included.

In general, accessible birth control is a vital component of an effective society. It’s imperative for women to have the choice to use contraceptives (whether in the form of a pill, diaphragm, or anything else) because women need to be able to decide if/when they want to have children. If women are forced into motherhood at an inopportune time, not only does it make for poor parenting, but it can also be physically dangerous for the mother. According to Promoting Healthy Pregnancies: Counseling and Contraception as the First Step, conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, reflux esophagitis, arthritis, and coronary artery disease can worsen during an unintended pregnancy. If a woman is endangered during a pregnancy, then it certainly puts her unborn child in danger, too. Condoms accomplish the same means, but it’s men’s choice, not women’s. Men’s choice in birth control is also important, and they should have the ability to get condoms at little to no cost, just as women should have the ability to get birth control at little to no cost.

Economically speaking, no-cost birth control is so important because many women can’t afford birth control if it costs a lot - women get paid 79 cents to men’s dollar, and it’s even worse for women of color. The current unemployment rate is 9.2%, so even women that could usually afford birth control may not be able to now.

No-cost birth control is also the solution to a vicious circle. Women who can’t afford birth control and choose to have unprotected sex anyway can get pregnant. If they decide not to have an abortion or give their child up for adoption, they have an infant to take care of, on top of the other responsibilities they have in life (which can include a job, taking care of a parent or sibling, caring for other children, etc.). A woman who can’t afford birth control certainly can’t afford a child. (According to the Agriculture Department, raising a child costs $222,360. That’s definitely a lot more than birth control costs.) Such a family can end up relying on government-sponsored programs like WIC, welfare, Food Stamps, public housing, Medicaid, etc. Isn’t it a lot cheaper to give a woman free birth control than support a family?

It’s equally important for no-cost birth control to be accessible. The fact that it’s free is great, and necessary, but if women can’t get it, it means nothing. If insurance companies will only offer birth control at no cost after a woman has hit the doughnut hole, or some other random requirement, it just makes it impossible for women to obtain the no-cost birth control they need.

No-cost birth control clearly benefits not only women, but their families. As I stated previously, women on birth control can avoid pregnancies they aren’t ready for because of other children they have to take care of. (The National Abortion Federation backs up this point.) This not only helps an unexpected child, but existing children. It also has men’s best interests in mind, because an unplanned pregnancy and newborn can strain a relationship unnecessarily.

All in all, no-cost birth control has so many positives and very few negatives. It’s imperative that it becomes available to women across age, race, and geographical lines - it can benefit so many lives without much effort.

Star of Davida Essay Contest!

2011-07-18T16:45:00.001-04:00

As a financially needy studentwho wants to go to a really great college, I’ve been obsessively looking foressay contests to win so I can build up my résumé and get some money for thathungry college fund. As a feminist, I’ve tried to find essays relating tofeminism, but I haven’t been so lucky. I actually found an essay contest whosetitle was “Why is Abstinence Before Marriage the Best Choice for Teens Today?”Needless to say, it made me gag, but it didn’t stop me from writing the mostpathetic essay I’ve ever written and submitting it. (I won honorable mention.Go figure.)

It really bothers me that I havenever stumbled upon an essay contest even remotely related to feminism. Yeah,sure, there are a few competitions that are out there that reward girls whohave made an impact in their communities, but none about topics pertaining tothe actual women’s rights movement. When I Googled “pro-choice essay contest,”the only hits I got were a bunch of articles about pro-life essay contests. Nojoke.

So that’s where I come in. I’msick and tired of the lack of feminist essay contests out there, so I’m makingmy own for all of you young feminists out there who want to write about theirpassion, and maybe get a reward while you’re at it! This essay contest is alsoto celebrate Star of Davida’s first birthday. It’s hard for me to believe, butI’ve been blogging for a whole year at this point.

Description: Answer thequestion “How has feminism changed your life?” Has feminism helped you getthrough a rough time, accept yourself for who you are, changed how you liveyour life, your aspirations, etc. etc. Go crazy. As long as it’s between 250 -750 words.

How to Enter: Send youressay as a doc, docx, or PDF file to starofdavida@gmail.com. If there’s atechnical issue with your entry, I’ll be in touch - don’t worry. In the subjectline, please write “Essay Contest” or something to that effect. On the top of thefirst page, include your full name, age, and email address.

Deadline: October 10, 2011

Eligibility: If you’re afeminist, and you’re a student (ranging anywhere between preschool and a PhDprogram), then you can enter.

Awards: The top threewinners will each win a copy of Care Bears on Fire’s newest album, GirlsLike it Loud, as well as getting their essays published on Star of Davida!

Please direct any questions youhave to starofdavida@gmail.com. Happy writing!

Thoughts on the Recent NOW Webinar

2011-07-14T16:09:00.002-04:00

I had the amazing opportunity to participate in a NOW webinar narrated by Terry O’Neill, the president of NOW, titled “The Budget Deal is a Feminist Issue.” The webinar discussed how Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) 2012 budget deal would cut several social services, which women depend disproportionately on.

O’Neill cited several statistics about women’s dependence compared to men’s on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Over half of Medicare beneficiaries are women, and women are more likely to report having three or more chronic conditions, which shows that they utilize Medicare more than men do. 70% of Medicaid dollars support nursing homes and families with disabled members; 80% of nursing home residents are women, and nursing home employees are also mostly women. Social Security provides more than 60% of the total income for women 65 and older, and 57% of beneficiaries are women.

Ryan’s budget also cuts family planning clinics, Pell grants, job training, Head Start, childcare programs, and WIC nutrition programs, which clearly serve women predominantly. Many more women work in the public sector, and they are disproportionately losing jobs because governments at all levels are cutting workers. This comes against the backdrop of women having fewer fallback resources in the first place because of the persistent gender-based wage gap, which costs women between $400,000 and $2,000,000 over a lifetime.

Women of color are especially vulnerable. Unmarried African-American women’s median wealth (defined as what a person owns minus what a person owes) is $100, Latinas’ $125, and white women’s $41,500. Statistics are similar disturbing for married women. These figures are particularly upsetting because women’s wages are essential to the entire family: most two-parent households are entirely or partly based on women’s wages, so families suffer from women’s unfortunate economic state.

In addition to explaining the negative impacts of the Ryan deal, O’Neill recommended several good budget principles that we should be fighting for. One suggestion is for the government to establish jobs programs in healthcare, education, childcare, and other similar fields, even if it means making the deficit worse in the short term, since it’ll put money in people’s pockets and boost the economy. The rich should also have to pay their fair share of taxes. Military spending should be cut, and that money should be used for social service programs instead. In addition, healthcare is a fundamental right, not a privilege, and should be made available for everyone. O’Neill also stressed the fact that programs like Medicare and Medicaid are not what put America into debt.

After the presentation portion, O’Neill opened the floor to questions. When asked how Medicare and Medicaid would work under the Ryan budget, Anita Lederer, the NOW field organizer, explained that Medicare will become a voucher system. People will be given a certain amount of vouchers (representing dollars) a year; if they runs out, they’re on their own regarding healthcare payment. Medicaid money will be block granted to each state to spend on their citizens.

When someone asked what the current wage gap is, O’Neill answered that it’s currently 79 cents to every man’s dollar (69 for black women and 59 for Latinas), which is an improvement to the previous 77 cent proportion.

While answering several other questions, O’Neill debunked the myth that Social Security is going broke. She explained that the system was reformed in the 1980s, at which time a $2.7 million surplus was set aside as retirement funds for the baby boom generation. In addition, she made it clear that Medicare is not the problem; the current healthcare system is what’s flawed. Economists even say that Medicare could even be part of the solution, if handled correctly. O’Neill also cited several statistics about how people across party, age, race, and gender lines oppose Ryan cuts, including 62% of Tea Partiers.

Someone asked how to sway congresspeople who are unfriendly to the feminist movement, and O’Neill urged everyone to call them anyway and make them aware of women’s rights issues, run for office and encourage other feminists to do so, and support feminist candidates (even if they’re not perfect). She stressed the importance of a pipeline of ardent feminists in the political world.

I asked O’Neill if these cuts impact girls and teens, and she explained that the Ryan deal would cut family planning clinics like Planned Parenthood, which also offer services like mammograms, STD and HIV screenings, Pap smears, and other tests that can help save women’s lives. “That’s appalling,” she said. After a few more questions, O’Neill wrapped up the hour-long session by emphasizing the importance of the social services the Ryan budget would cut.

All in all, I greatly enjoyed the webinar. (I told my friend about it and she told me, “You’re probably the only teenager on the planet who enjoyed hearing a presentation about the budget.” She’s probably got a point there.) In a personal correspondence, Ms. Lederer asked if everyone could speak to their representatives, host a letter-writing campaign, or demonstrate in a rally against cuts. You can contact your representative here, and tell him or her:

As one of your constituents, I oppose the Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other social service program cuts proposed by the Ryan budget. These are vital programs for every American citizen, but are especially important for women. Over half of Medicare beneficiaries are women, 70% of Medicaid recipients are in nursing homes (whose inhabitants and employees are a vast majority of women), and 57% of Social Security beneficiaries are women. Family planning clinics, Pell grants, job training, Head Start, childcare programs, and WIC nutrition programs clearly serve women predominantly. This is not even to mention the wage gap between men and women, especially those of color. Please ensure that the women of America will not be forced into poverty because of Ryan budget cuts.

While I loved the webinar, it bothered me a little bit that O’Neill didn’t address the impact of the Ryan budget cuts on younger women, which is why I made sure to ask about it. I know O’Neill is of the baby boom generation, and I would venture to say that so is the vast majority of NOW members, but isn’t it important to include people of all ages? Feminists go to extreme efforts to include homosexuals, people of color, the disabled, etc. etc. etc. Shouldn’t they consider it a primary goal to include younger feminists? We are the next generation, and if they don’t encourage us to join the movement, it will wither away and die.

But to end on a positive note, I really enjoyed the webinar, and I’m looking for to another one!

Shining Stars of Davida: Sandy Pasch

2011-07-11T21:26:00.002-04:00

Wisconsin is in the process of convening a recall election, which is when citizens sign a petition to remove an elected official. This particular recall election was called to unseat state senators who supported the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill. This law was extremely unpopular with voters, inciting mass protests. Of the nine state senators who are at risk of losing their position, six are running against women. Only one of those women is Jewish: Sandy Pasch.

Sandy Pasch is from Milwaukee (like Golda Meir!). She greatly benefitted from Second Wave Feminism’s work towards equality in academics, since she received a BS in nursing in 1976 and an MS in psychiatric nursing in 1981. Pasch has worked as a nurse as well teaching nursing as an assistant professor. She is an active advocate for the mentally ill, serving as the president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Greater Milwaukee for four terms. She also coordinated the Crisis Intervention Team and created the Crisis Intervention Partner program as part of NAMI.

In 2008, Pasch was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly’s 22nd District, and was reelected in 2010. As an assemblyperson, she has served on the Committee on Health and Committee on Public Health and Public Safety, making use of her medical background. She is also a member of the Joint Legislative Council, whose purpose is to make citizen committees to research issues important to the state government.

Pasch has advocated for several important health-related issues during her tenure. She proclaimed the first week in May 2011 Children’s Mental Health Week, and May 2011 as Mental Health Awareness Month. She also co-introduced a resolution urging US Congress to pass the Oil Industry Tax Break Repeal Act, a bill introduced in 2009 which would end incentives for gas companies. She is very concerned about making sure everyone has quality healthcare, and champions SeniorCare, a Wisconsin program that helps seniors pay for their medication.

Pasch is certainly a feminist. NARAL Pro-Choice America lists Pasch as pro-choice, and endorsed her 2010 Assembly bid. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin endorses Pasch in the current recall election, as well as EMILY’s List. Pasch vehemently supports domestic violence victims: she supported bills forbidding someone arrested for domestic violence from going to the home of the victim, and prohibiting discrimination in housing because of domestic abuse victim status.

Pasch is also involved in the Jewish community. On her Facebook page, she lists “Jewish” as her religious view. She spoke at the Legislative Breakfast at the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, which was sponsored by the JCRC, JHCC, and the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Women’s Division. She also met with students from Milwaukee Jewish Day School at the Capitol building.

She is running against incumbent Alberta Darling. She has been a leader in passing bills protecting children against sex offenders, among many other noble causes. However, NARAL calls her “mixed choice.” She voted against women’s health, as she wanted to cut funding from Planned Parenthood and a family planning program for men (both of which offer cancer and STD screenings), and she opposed the Healthy Youth Act (which gives Wisconsin students comprehensive, age-appropriate sex education) and Expedited Partner Therapy (which gives a second dose of medication to the partner of someone with an STD). She voted against the Pay Equity Act, which allows employees who faced discrimination sue for damages, as well as many other bills that empowered women.

EDIT: Pasch won the primary, which means she's going up against Darling on August 12.

Star of Davida Interviews Jenni Alpert

2011-07-08T18:57:00.003-04:00

Women have always been important in music. In biblical times, women like Deborah and Hannah composed songs of thanks for God. In more recent times, women have consistently been a hugely important presence in the music industry (for the good and bad). Jenni Alpert, a California native, is one example of female talent on the music scene. She has released six albums, had songs featured on television shows like CSI Miami and 16 and Pregnant, and toured the globe with singers like Sara Bareilles and Regina Spektor. Star of Davida had the absolute honor of interviewing Jenni Alpert.

What got you into music?
I was always a musician and I’ve always been playing music. I was introduced to the piano and I loved the idea of the mechanics behind it and the sound that it made, and that shaped me as a musician.

Did you ever anticipate that you would become a singer?
No, things really just fell into place. I didn’t plan it.

Has Judaism shaped your music at all?
Yes, in a lot of ways. I’m pretty spiritual when it comes to religion, so I think that a lot of Judaism is being part of a community, and music is a language that most people relate to. When I first learned guitar I was asked to learn a lot of the Jewish music, so that’s where the connection lies. I do song leading with Judaism as well. It’s all about bringing a community together through music, which is a universal language.

What was it like to tour across the world?
I love traveling, so in I feel really fortunate that I can do what I really love and also be traveling and see different countries and the way world works.

I know that you’ve traveled across the globe while touring. Was it any different in Israel?
All countries in general have a unique spirit to them, I guess a different ruah (spirit) you could say. It’s great to go to countries where they have a home language and people can relate to that by how your music sounds.

I think it’s great that you go by such a distinctly Jewish name, since singers often change their names to sound less Jewish. Is there a reason you do so?
I never thought about changing it. I don’t feel connected to any stigma related to Judaism or any other religion. We are who we are and people will think what they think and feel what they feel, but I’m just proud to be myself. My name is just a name. If someone has an issue with the fact that I’m Jewish, then don’t buy my album.

I noticed that you’re active in several women’s and children’s advocacy organizations. Why do these issues matter to you?
I was adopted and I was in foster homes until I was four, so I think that raised a compassion towards people, anyone really. Whoever has experiences like that may shape them. I think perhaps working in the foster care system to help children who have develop their identities is a strength of mine. I was adopted out of a Jewish family into a Jewish family, which was very fortunate, and ingrained a sense of identity in me.

Do you consider yourself a feminist?
I consider myself someone who believes in women’s rights and I believe in women taking care of themselves and being aware.

I also saw that you’re currently touring to benefit the Blood Driven Tour, which raises awareness of the need to donate blood. Why is this so important to you?
It was inspired by the fact that I have a biological family member who suffers from a blood disorder. I’m going from blood drive to blood drive and performing in order to raise awareness to increase the amount of donors at blood drives. It doesn’t really matter that it’s my relative, though, because whether you’re blood-related or adopted or it’s just a friend, there are people who shape your life and whoever they are doesn’t matter. It’s important to honor everyone that you meet.

What advice do you have for aspiring female singers?
Working on your craft is super important. It’s the same with relationship building and being aware of people around you, what other people are looking for. You have to have a really positive attitude and know you can’t always create your future, you have to be in the present as much as possible and make a difference that way. I’ve been all by myself, with no label or manager or agent, and what I’ve dreamt has unfolded.

Jenni has a new record out on iTunes called Underneath the Surface, produced by the bass player of Blind Melon, Brad Smith. Jenni described it as “an eclectic pop record that encompasses songs that tell stories about coming of age and developing an independent awareness and love for oneself and other people.” She is currently touring (as mentioned above), and ends of July 20. Make sure to check out her Web site and buy her album at iTunes!

Laugh Out Loud

2011-07-04T22:36:00.000-04:00

A little while ago, I was at my friend’s house for Shabbat (Sabbath). Her younger sister, who was in second grade, had a friend over (let’s call her T) after Shabbat ended. According to today’s beauty standards, T was absolutely gorgeous, despite the fact that she was only eight years old. In addition to being physically appealing, her personality was totally adorable.

The thing I remember T most for, however, is the fact that she laughed. That is, that she laughed despite the big gap between her two front teeth.

It struck me that this little girl wasn’t afraid to laugh out loud, that she wasn’t afraid to smile. She wasn’t trying to hide her “imperfect” teeth. She didn’t feel self-conscious about it. She just didn’t care that her teeth are not what society tells us is beautiful.

And that just amazes me. I think it’s freaking incredible that T is too young to be hurt by what society tells us is the right way for teeth to look. She’s too young to care.

But at the same time, it hurts me that she’ll get older, and kids will make fun of her and her gap. She’ll get braces, no doubt. Even if she doesn’t end up self-conscious about it, her parents will be self-conscious for her. She’ll get braces, but she won’t forget about the teasing that kids threw at her. You won’t be able to tell that her teeth were ever anything other than straight and even. But she’ll be able to tell. She’ll look in the mirror and remember all the pain those kids, maybe not even purposely, caused her.

Why can’t it be like it was when we were eight? We didn’t care how our teeth looked. We didn’t care if our stomachs stuck out a little bit too much. We didn’t care whether boys liked us or not. Our biggest worries were that spelling test on Friday that we didn’t study for yet and if our big sister would notice we used up her favorite lipstick while playing dress up.

I wish we could all have T’s confidence in how we look. I wish we could all just smile at ourselves in the mirror and tell whitening toothpaste commercials to go screw themselves. I wish we could all laugh like that.

That Is, Frankly, A Lie

2011-06-30T19:25:00.001-04:00

“However, this is just how they roll”. Oh how very enlightened and tolerant. “They didn’t Photoshop Ms. Clinton out out of a fear of strong women or desire to hide women, but for the sake of keeping their religion to the fullest extent.” The two are the same. Their religion, as they practice it, precludes strong women and requires the hiding of women. Also, it would behoove you to note that while Avi Weiss ordained Sara Hurwitz, he also announced he would never give another woman the title Rabba - and practically every single orthodox figure and organization denounced even that one deviation. And that’s “Modern Orthodox”. Not even talking about old school orthodox (hassidic and litvak). Sure, strong women exist even in the darkest societies - including some way darker than orthodox Judaism. But to say that Orthodox Judaism and Feminism are not incompatible is, frankly, a lie. So by all means, reconcile your own personal spirituality with feminism, but don’t be an apologist.

I found the above comment in my moderation folder on my cross-post to the All Girl Army, where I addressed the whole Hillary Clinton Haredi newspaper Photoshop incident. (You can read the article here, which I suggest you do before reading the rest of this article.)

When I saw the comment, I was more than a little upset, which is why I did not let it through. (The commenter later commented “Interesting. I spent time and thought replying to your post, but I guess having a conversation isn’t why you have a blog. Enjoy then!”) But no, I want to have a conversation. I want to give the person who feels like this a response, but I wanted to dedicate a whole post to it rather than giving him or her a short response in a comment box.

To go in the commenter’s order, I’ll address the whole Clinton Photoshop incident first. I didn’t want to write about it originally, since I felt that it was an embarrassment to the Jewish community, and I didn’t want to further the hillul Hashem (desecration of God). However, I wanted to address it on the All Girl Army in order to dispel the “Judaism is sexist” myth.

All Jews, both male and female, keep tzniut, modesty in dress. (See my interview with Gila Manolson about this.) How exactly to dress varies from one sect to another. For example, Modern Orthodox Jews will wear vibrant colors and patterns; ultra-Orthodox Jews like Hasids usually don’t wear colors, staying confined to black, navy, brown, gray, and white. Part (note: not all) of the reasoning behind tzniut is to protect men from being turned on by women who are not their wives. As a result, Hasidic men go to the extreme to keep this from happening, and avoid looking at pictures of women. This is why the Hasidic newspaper Photoshopped Hillary Clinton out. Do I think that this is a ridiculous way to keep Judaism? Of course. But as I stated in my original article, that’s why I’m not a Hasid. Also stated previously, I don’t want to defend the newspaper for doing this, I just want to explain why they did it.

Now to discuss Sara Hurwitz and women rabbis. In the original article, I used Sara Hurwitz as an example; I could have used women like Rachel Kohl Finegold, Dina Najman, or Lynn Kaye just as easily. Yes, Rabbi Avi Weiss has been banned from ordaining more women with the title rabba, and Sara Hurwitz will remain the only official one. Honestly, that’s not important. As I said in my original article, there are many more women in Jewish leadership who are not rabbas. The title isn’t important. What they do is what matters. So if the Orthodox community doesn’t want to call them rabbis or actually ordain them, sure, don’t. But they’re still standing in synagogues and giving sermons and helping women and men of their communities connect to God, and that’s all that matters.

“But to say that Orthodox Judaism and Feminism are not incompatible is, frankly, a lie.” Not only did that part of the comment make me really mad, but that is, frankly, a lie. I’ve given many examples of how Orthodoxy/Judaism and the Torah support feminism, and there are millions more. I don’t even feel the need to give explanations for how the two mesh; I’ve talked about it before. I know it’s the truth. I know nothing about this commenter except for the fact that he or she is wrong. I’m not an apologist. I’m just telling the truth. And if people don’t want to accept that, then I feel bad for them. They will live in a world filled with inequality. So be it, if that's how they want to live. But it sure as heck ain't the way I want to.

The Perils of Driving Distracted

2011-06-26T18:40:00.002-04:00

NOTE: This is fiction. I wrote this as part of a scholarship essay contest on the perils of distracted driving and driving while texting. Make sure to vote for me here! (It's the fifth one listed on the page.)

“She’s still not home.”

My mother’s statement is greeted with silence, except for the sound of the clock ticking 2:00 am. I don’t know why she bothers saying it. My father and I can see that Sarah hasn’t come home yet, and her friend Rachel said she left her house hours ago, after the two had a fight. The heavy rain pours onto the streets outside, lashing the windows. I watch the drops slide down the glass outside, glittery against the dark nighttime background.

A sudden knock on the door breaks the pained silence. We all jump up, but my mother, clad in a nightgown and robe, is the first to get to the door. Two very wet police officers holding broken umbrellas stand on the stoop.

“Is this the Miller-Green household?” the female officer asks. My mother nods, still in shock. “My name is Officer Fawcett, and this is Officer O’Grady. May we come in?” Mom makes room for them to come into the living room.

“I suggest you sit down,” Officer O’Grady tells us. Numb, we sit on the couch. I expect the worst.

“Is this about my daughter, Sarah?” Mom asks. Her voice is a thread of sound, barely audible over the pounding rain outside.

“I’m sorry to say that it is,” he replies. “Your daughter was in a car accident at about 8:00 pm. She drove her car, a red Kia, into the side of an apartment building about a mile away from here. An ambulance was called almost immediately by the tenants. Sarah was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was ID'd she’s on life support.” We all breathed a sigh of relief that Sarah was alive, but then froze when we realized it might be a temporary state.

“She was coming home from a friend,” I say after an awkward pause. “Her friend told us that they had an argument when Sarah stormed out.”

“Sarah was holding a phone when the EMTs got her out of the car,” Officer Fawcett says. “It was smashed to pieces along with the rest of the Kia, but we figure that she was texting someone, maybe her friend, when she crashed the car. Her mascara was a mess, and there were make up stains on her sleeves. It looked like she was crying, maybe because of the argument, which probably blurred her vision.”

“And she wasn’t wearing her contacts if she was crying,” Dad says, the first time he’s spoken since before midnight. “With the rain…” As if to validate his conjecture, a large clap of thunder booms outside the house.

“Do you know if she’ll make it?” Mom asks the officers. As soon as she says it, she winces, not wanting to know the answer.

They both look pessimistic. “We’re not doctors, so we can’t really say,” Officer Fawcett says, but it’s clear that even those not in the medical field can tell that Sarah won’t survive. All because of a stupid argument, a storm, and an ill-timed text. Sarah’s life was worth more than that.

She's not going to make it. My big sister's going to die. Oh my gosh. My sister's going to die, just because she was upset and driving and texting, all at the same time.

Shining Stars of Davida: Janice Hahn

2011-06-20T22:09:00.004-04:00

Have there been a lot of elections involving women this year, or is it just me? I don’t know, maybe it’s just that this year is the first time I’ve actively been following elections, let alone those involving women candidates, but there seem to be a lot of them. (Not that I’m complaining! It’s awesome to get more representation in Congress.) In California’s 36th district, Janice Hahn is running as part of a special election for the recently vacated US House of Representatives seat.

The seat was previously occupied by Jane Harman. Harman, whose father escaped Nazi Germany, got her JD from Harvard Law School. After being active in politics for several years, she served three terms in the US House from 1993-1999 and 2000-2011. (The gap is due to an unsuccessful run for governor.) She voted against the ban on partial-birth abortions and supports the pro-choice movement. She resigned from Congress in February to head the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. (I find it ironic that such a feminist is heading an organization that commemorates Woodrow Wilson, who did everything in his power to stop women from getting the right to vote.) Because of Hahn’s resignation, a special election is being convened.

The Democratic nominee is Janice Hahn. Hahn is from a political family: her father was a Los Angeles councilperson and LA County Supervisor, her uncle was a member of the California Assembly and an LA councilperson, and her brother was the LA city attorney and mayor of LA. After working as a teacher and in the business sector for several years, she was elected to the Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission in 1997, helping create a neighborhood council program which gives community leaders the chance to have a voice in politics.

In 2001, she was elected to the Los Angeles City Council. As councilperson, Hahn has worked for labor rights by picketing with dockworkers for better pay, helping hotel workers get better wages, and working to provide healthcare for airport workers. She has also given assistance to truck drivers, grocery workers, court interpreters, and nurses, among others, to get better jobs.

She is also active in the environmental cause: she has reduced pollution as a result of port operations, advocates clean air, and supports the Clean Trucks Program, which will cut truck-made port pollution. Working to promote tourism in LA, she worked with her brother when he was mayor to build a waterfront promenade and was one of the first to support the modernizing renovation of the Los Angeles International Airport.

Hahn has also worked hard against gangs in LA, working with LAPD to reach children as part of early prevention programs. There was recently an extraordinarily offensive ad, depicting Hahn as a pole dancer with black gangsters calling her the b word and stuffing singles into her waistband, saying that Hahn really supported gangs in her effort to end them. Her opponent, Craig Huey, denounced the extremely sexist and racist ad.

In addition, Hahn supports Israel, stating on her Web site that “The safety and security of the State of Israel as a Jewish state - and a critical ally of the United States - will be a top priority of mine in Congress.” While she advocates for a two-state solution, she also says that “Israel should have the absolute right to choose the location of its capital and Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel.”

Huey also supports Israel, stating that “I will be Israel’s number-one man.” However, a staffer of his called Planned Parenthood a “murder mill,” and Huey is pro-life.

The election will take place in less than a month from now, on July 12. I look forward to see the outcome of this election.

I dub Janice Hahn an inductee into the Shining Stars of Davida - strong women and men who make us feminists proud.

He Promised Her a Rose Garden

2011-06-17T14:08:00.001-04:00

I've never been a poet, but here's an attempt.

It was 1976.
Peak of the women’s lib movement.
New York, New York.
Peak of the peak.
She was going for a PhD in psych.
She could, thanks to Betty Friedan.

“After you finish your PhD,” he told her,
“We’ll move to Long Island.
Have three or four kids.
Buy a house.
With a white picket fence,
And a rose garden.”

She was nineteen.
She fell for it.

A week after the wedding
He got fired.
It wasn’t such a surprise.
Between the mental illness
Never showing up
And long sick leaves
It was just a matter of time.

“I won’t get a job immediately,” he told her.
“You can type anywhere.
I have to do something important.
I have to have a career.
I’m the man of the house.”

She felt like she had been slapped.
You can type anywhere.
Well, she could.
And since he wasn’t getting a job,
She had to.

She couldn’t finish her PhD dissertation.
She was working too many hours.
When she wasn’t working,
She was cleaning his toilet,
Cooking his dinner.

You can type anywhere.
It would ring through her head for years.
She typed for thirty years.
He rarely worked.

She never finished her PhD.
Never moved to Long Island.
Never even bought an apartment.
There was only one child, a girl.
(After nineteen years. He was impotent.)
There was certainly no white picket fence.
Definitely no rose garden.

After 36 years of no rose gardens,
36 years of severe mental illness,
She finally couldn’t take it anymore
And put him in a nursing home.

She told all this to her daughter.
You can type anywhere.
She quoted it bitterly,
Angrily.
She would never forget it.
Her daughter wouldn’t, either.

Don’t be like me, she said.
Don’t fall for that.
Don’t fall for the picket fence.
Don’t fall for the rose garden.
Don’t listen when he says that you can type anywhere.
The only typing you’ll do is legal briefs.
You can, thanks to Betty Friedan.

Shining Stars of Davida: Orna Barbivai

2011-06-12T17:39:00.002-04:00

Women have served in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) since before the state of Israel was created in 1948. Many women fought alongside men in pre-1948 militant organizations like the Haganah and Irgun, unofficial armies to protect the Jews of Israel and fight for independence. In the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, numerous women took up arms and protected their homeland, many of them Holocaust survivors. One such example is Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the famed sex therapist, who went to Israel after she learned of her parents’ deaths in the concentration camps. Despite the fact that she was 4”7 and 17 years old, she joined the Haganah and became a scout and sniper. In the 1948 war, she got wounded to the point that she could not walk for several months. She is one of thousands of brave women and men who have served the Israeli army and made Israel a safer country for Jews.

After 1948, women were barred from actual combat due to the fear that they would be sexually assaulted if they became prisoners of war. In the 1950s and 60s, some women did rise the ranks, like Yael Rom, the first female pilot, and Hava Inbar, the first female military judge in the entire world. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, women began consistently reaching higher positions in the military. Since 2000, women have been guaranteed the opportunity to serve in the same roles as men in the military with the passage of the Equality Amendment to the Military Service Law.

On May 26, 2011, Orna Barbivai was appointed as the first woman major general, the second-highest rank in the IDF, by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. She is currently a brigadier general (the third-highest rank), following in the footsteps of Amira Dotan, the first woman to serve in that position. Barbivai has worked hard to get to this point; after serving her mandatory time in 1981, she went on to become a member of the IDF Personnel Directorate (aka the Manpower Directorate and Human Resources Directorate), the military body that controls human resources. She has also been head of human resources in the Ground Forces Personnel Division and adjutant general (a military chief administrative officer).

Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has celebrated Barbivai’s appointment, stating that there is “extreme importance to integrating women in top positions in the IDF.” Netanyahu has made his support for women’s rights clear in the past. On International Women’s Day, he told female soldiers that “[Israel]…is especially prominent in that it is a democratic state in which women have equal rights.” When former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was found guilty of several sexual assault accusations, Netanyahu stated that “[Katsav’s situation shows that] all are equal before the law, and that every woman has exclusive rights to her body.”

Other women have rejoiced in Barbivai’s promotion. Miri Regev, a Knesset member who served as brigadier general and IDF Spokesperson, stated that “I have no doubt that this nomination will open the door to many women officers who wish to climb higher in the chain of command. I hope this nomination won't turn out to be a one-time thing.” Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Opposition Leader in the Knesset, said that “There is no rank that is too heavy for a woman’s shoulders.”

Jewish women in the military, whether Israeli or abroad, are living out the legacy that our foremothers left us. In Judges, Deborah fought against the Canaanites, and Jael killed the Canaanites’ fleeing general Sisera. The story of Judith beheading Holofernes has also been handed down from mother to daughter. I think all Jewish feminists look forward to seeing even more women reach the highest ranks in the military that protects our homeland.

I dub Orna Barbivai into the Shining Stars of Davida - strong women and men who make us feminists proud.

Tikkun Olam: A Jewish View on Recycling

2011-06-09T22:39:00.017-04:00

A common misconception is that Judaism has no opinions on staying green, or even opposes the concept. I find this ironic, as Judaism vehemently supports saving the environment, especially recycling.

Tikkun olam, which literally means fixing the world, is the Jewish theory that supports recycling. It is first mentioned in the Mishnah, part of the Talmud (Oral Torah), in the context of fixing the world from a social perspective. It is also mentioned three times every day in prayer, reminding the observant Jew of his or her obligation to repair the world on a daily basis. Part of the reparation every human being can do for the world is recycling.

The Bible and Oral tradition both support tikkun olam, even if they don’t mention it by name. The fact that God created the universe is a major reason that Jews need to protect it. There are many mitzvot (commandments) in Judaism that prohibit people from hurting themselves or mutilating their bodies because God formed them. The same concept applies to the world: we must protect it and fix it, especially through recycling, because it is God’s creation.

Judaism also has a prohibition called bal tash’hit, which prohibits wasteful practices. The basis for this mitzvah is in Deuteronomy 20:19-20, which forbids destroying fruit trees during war. While this is usually only applied to not wasting food, it also refers to not wasting anything. If God created it, the Holy One wanted it in this world, and it’s not up to us to wantonly destroy it if it can be reused. If you can recycle that plastic bottle or day-old newspaper, you are religiously obligated to do so.

There are many holidays that celebrate agriculture. When the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) was in existence, almost every holiday involved the giving of sacrifices, many of which involved grains of some sort. Tu B’Shevat, a holiday established in the Mishnah, celebrates trees. When it was first created in the third century CE, it marked the time of the harvest and tithe season. Today Jews celebrate Tu B’Shevat by planting trees and plants, especially in Israeli soil, and eat Israeli fruits. Shavuot, which is also known as the Harvest Holiday, commemorates the fact that Jews would bring the first fruits from their fields to the Beit HaMikdash at this time of year. Today, the Seven Species of fruit and grain associated with Israel are still linked to Shavuot. The fact that Judaism celebrates crop growing in many of its holidays show the importance of not wasting anything that comes from the ground. There are also many mitzvot related to the land, like the Sabbatical year every seventh year, the Jubilee year every fifty years, and pe’ah, leket, and shikhiha, laws relating to giving crops to the poor.

There are many Jewish organizations in existence whose missions are to fix the world, Jewish style. David Krantz of the Green Zionist Alliance stated in a personal correspondence, “Recycling and other environmental activities are Jewish actions since many aspects of Jewish tradition implore us to protect the land, the plants and the animals with which we coexist on Earth. For example, we have a long-ignored biblical imperative to care for nature. In the book of Breishit (Genesis 2:15), the Torah commands us to serve and to guard the Earth. Because of the concept that no biblical commandment is any less worthy than another, an act such as recycling may be just as important for Jews to do as observing Shabbat, the weekly day of rest.”

Another organization, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL), states on its website that it “has helped tens of thousands of Jews make a connection between Judaism and the environment. COEJL has put environmental protection on the agenda of the organized Jewish community and made the case to elected officials and decision-makers that protecting the environment is a moral and religious obligation.” Canfei Nesharim (a Hebrew term that means “on the wings of eagles,” referring to Exodus 19:4) wants to bridge the gap between Torah values and the environmental cause. Some other organizations are Hazon, Jewcology and related Teva Ivri (literally meaning “nature of a Jew”), Jewish Farm School, the Jewish National Fund, and the Teva Learning Center.

Recycling is truly an action supported by Judaism and the Jewish community. Three times a day in prayer, every Jew recites “We thankfully acknowledge…Your miracles which are with us daily, and for Your continual wonders and beneficences.” God gives us amazing blessings on a daily basis, doing miracles we don’t even notice. We have to give back to God and do our best to protect the world that our Creator has given us. Tikkun olam.

This post was written specifically for a scholarship provided by Castle Ink about celebrating recycling. The article with the most hits gets the scholarship, so please share this with all of your friends!

A Lesson in Equality From Adam and Eve

2011-06-06T18:55:00.018-04:00

“So let’s learn about Shavuot,” my teacher said, and I dutifully began to take notes on the holiday. “Shavuot [which begins Tuesday night] commemorates God giving the Torah to the Jews. When God was telling Moses to instruct the Jews how to prepare for Matan Torah [Giving of the Torah], God said to Moses, ‘So shall you say to Beit Yaakov [House of Jacob] and Bnei Yisrael [Children of Israel].’ Rashi says that Beit Yaakov refers to the women, while Bnei Yisrael refers to the men. Okay, great explanation. But why does it say the women first?

“A woman’s father has a fruit field, and it becomes part of her dowry. She gets married and her husband is out on the field, picking fruit. A guy passes by and wants to buy the field. Can the husband agree to sell it before the wife, since it was part of her dowry?” My classmates nodded noncommittally, unsure of the answer. “No. He can’t sell it without her permission, and she needs to give her permission first. Why? Because a kosher woman listens to her husband,” my teacher said, and I gagged. “So if her husband wants to sell the field, a kosher wife will sell it. However, since it’s her field because it was part of her dowry, she needs to give her permission too.” I continued gagging.

“So it goes for Matan Torah,” the teacher continued. “If the men had accepted the Torah first, then the women, being the kosher souls that they were, would have said yes simply because they were listening to the will of their husbands. Thus, the women had to accept the Torah first to make sure that they were really accepting it with all their hearts.”

As soon as she finished the lesson, my heart fell. At first I thought it was so feminist to put the women before the men! Of course, women are looking for equality with men, not to be before them, but considering all the times where women are ignored in the Torah, putting them first here equalizes it a little bit. But no; even that my teacher had to take away.

Men and women were commanded together several times in the Torah. However, there was at least one time where the commandment applied to both men and women, but was not directly commanded to woman: to abstain from eating from the Tree of Knowledge. God said to Adam, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad, you must not eat thereof; for on the day you eat of it, you shall surely die” (Gen 2:16-17). However, it’s five verses later in Gen 2:22 that God created woman. The commandment is never specifically relayed to Eve, but it’s obvious she knows of it, as when the snake asks her about whether or not she is forbidden from eating from any tree, she replies, “Of the fruit of the tree which is in the center of the garden God has said: ‘You shall not eat of it and you shall not touch it, lest you die’” (Gen 3:3). Eve, however, misquoted God: she said that God had said not to touch the Tree, while in the original commandment to Adam, God said simply not to eat from it. Eve also said to the snake that God “has” said; i.e., God said it once, but not in her hearing. One can assume that Adam relayed the message instead of God telling Eve directly.

We all know how the story ends: the snake persuaded Eve to eat from the Tree, Eve had Adam eat from the Tree, God got angry at them, then expelled them from the Garden of Eden. The punishment for later generations is that women have pain at childbirth and humankind has to work hard for sustenance. In short, the results were disastrous.

Eve had an equal obligation to Adam in the prohibition of eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Yet God did not bother commanding Eve against eating from it, simply allowing Adam to pass the message on. Seeing how it didn’t work out so well, God addressed the women first at Matan Torah, making up for the fact that God did not address woman at all about the Tree of Knowledge.

After Matan Torah, Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the rest of the Torah. When he didn’t come down on the expected day, the Jews built the Golden Calf. The women refused to participate, meriting the holiday of Rosh Hodesh in reward. Once again, the people commanded second messed up.

This shows that neither men nor women should have supremacy. There shouldn’t be one sex with more privileges than the other; there should be total equality. I am infamous for yelling at people when they use the word lady to describe a woman when they wouldn’t use the term gentleman, since it patronizes women. “But don’t feminists want to be better than men?” my uneducated friends will ask. “NO! Equal! We want to be equal!” I will exclaim. Women don’t want to be idolized or patronized; we want equality. Not above, definitely not below. EQUAL.

I’m not saying that God made a mistake in the Garden of Eden; God gave Adam and Eve all the tools to succeed. God doesn’t choose the path we decide, so it’s not God’s fault that the original humans erred. However, this just proves that our Creator is aware of the fact that women and men need to be equal. As you eat your cheesecake this Shavuot, remember the lesson in equality we learn from Adam and Eve.

Star of Davida Interviews Alicia Jo Rabins

2011-06-03T13:19:00.041-04:00

Women have always been important in music. In biblical times, women like Deborah and Hannah composed songs of thanks for God. In more recent times, women have consistently been a hugely important presence in the music industry (for the good and bad). I recently blogged about Girls in Trouble's new album Half You Half Me, and got the honor of interviewing Alicia Jo Rabins, the singer of the band.

Talia bat Pessi: Do you attribute Girls in Trouble as part of the feminist movement? Are you yourself a feminist?
Alicia Jo Rabins: I do consider myself a feminist, and I guess although I would characterize Girls in Trouble primarily as an art project/song cycle, I would call it feminist art - although we usually think of that more in terms of visual art, for some reason.

I understand that your music was influenced by some time you spent in Israel. Could you tell me some more about that?
I grew up in a secular Jewish home, but got really interested in the texts and the spiritual content of Judaism in college. So after I graduated, I got a scholarship to study at Pardes, in Jerusalem. I sort of jumped in full force and ended up staying for two years and getting super-deep into Talmud and Chassidic thought. It really changed my life. So these songs are definitely influenced by that time - by having had the tremendous blessing to spend two years fully immersed in these texts and traditions.

I'm borderline-obsessed with Lilith, and love that she influenced the album so much. Why did you choose her as your muse?
I too find Lilith incredibly fascinating - but I should say that although her song ended up being the album single, she’s not necessarily my muse any more than the other women I write about. I feel connected to each of them, and after 20 songs, they begin to form a system in which they are all parts of each other, or perhaps all refractions of some sort of divine woman, like that Tree of Life map of God which contains sefirot associated with different characters. But it’s true that Lilith is sort of fundamental: after all, she’s the first woman, or maybe predates Judaism altogether as a legend, and since she’s not actually mentioned in the Torah, there are such wildly varied legends about her! I was interested in the idea of medieval Jewish women making amulets to keep Lilith away so that she wouldn't kill their babies - it seemed so lonely to me, the thought of this woman first being banished by God because she wouldn’t submit to Adam, and then being doubly exiled by women who were afraid of her anger and power. I entered her character through this sort of awful imagined loneliness, and somehow ended up on the other sid of it, with the luminous power of that original love.

As I listened to “Rubies” and “Emeralds and Microscopes,” I was strongly reminded of my own grandmother and great-grandmother, respectively. Did you draw inspiration from any women in your own life?
Sure, and the men too!

Did you expect to have a career in music, or did you fall into all of this?
I grew up playing the violin and writing music, but what I expected to do was to be a poet (which I still am, as well). Music was always a huge part of my life, so I should have known it wouldn't just disappear one day - and I'm glad it didn't - but I still do occasionally get pretty surprised at the path my life has taken.

What advice do you have for other young women who want to pursue careers in the musical industry?

Trust your instincts, work hard, and have fun. A lot of people will tell you “how things work,” but they’re usually wrong - there are no hard and fast rules in this business. Be as creative about your career as you are about your work - for me that means a lot of DIY thinking, which is really helpful in transcending barriers and just making things happen. And above all keep taking in new work (music, literature, visual art, dance, film) and making your own work. That’s what makes us artists.

Women in the Air Force in Danger

2011-05-30T20:11:00.018-04:00

Women have traditionally been excluded from warfare, usually left at home for the men to protect them. There have been noted exceptions throughout history (think in terms of women like Deborah and Jael, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, etc.). Most modern militaries, including America’s, have welcomed women since the 1970s.

The United States Air Force has been open to women for almost 20 years; women currently make up about 16% of the force. (An interesting side note is that historically, there are many women associated with flying, like Amelia Earhart and the WASPs.) One March 30, the first all-woman Air Force unit embarked on a mission to Afghanistan. However, the American government may soon endanger many of the brave women that serve in the Air Force.

The Air Force is currently on the verge of purchasing a new fleet that will probably be used as the backbone of the war effort in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. There are two companies that manufacture the desired aircraft type: American-owned Hawker Beechcraft and Brazilian Embraer. Ignoring the fact that the American military should certainly be fighting in American-made planes, the Hawker Beechcraft model’s design has been updated within the past decade, while the Embraer planes have not been recently upgraded.

One of the many updates that the Embraer aircrafts lack is a low-impact ejection seat. This deficiency puts pilots of smaller stature in more danger. According to the Center for Military Readiness and common knowledge, women tend to be shorter and lighter. As a result, the Embraer model puts most women serving in the Air Force, as well as smaller men, in jeopardy. This is clearly discrimination that must be stopped before it happens. This is not just a matter of philosophy or politics, but of actual lives.

The women and men who protect us in the skies, risking their lives on a daily basis, need our help. I urge you to write the following message, adapted from a message Emily M. sent to me, to your representative and senators (who can be found at the links included above):

My name is [insert name here] from [insert hometown here]. Women pilots have been flying combat missions for the Air Force for 18 years now. However, it is gravely concerning to find out that they might not be as well protected as their male counterparts. The Air Force is preparing to buy a new fleet of Light Attack and Armed Reconnaissance fighters from either the American company Hawker Beechcraft or the Brazilian company Embraer. The ejection seat in the Embraer aircraft yields an extremely high impact, which poses a significant safety concern for pilots of lower height and weight. This disproportionately threatens the safety of female pilots, as they are typically of smaller stature than male pilots. Because of this, I ask you to lobby against the Embraer model’s purchase. The brave women in our Air Force take to the skies to protect us; don’t we owe it to them to make sure they are protected?

Since today is Memorial Day, I figured I would post something about women in the military, and this came to my attention. After you've taken a few minutes to help out women and men in the Air Force, have a good Memorial Day break!

Judaism and Feminism: An Orthodox Feminist's Perspective

2011-05-26T17:27:00.015-04:00

This was my intro post at the All-Girl Army (AGA).

I was born an Orthodox Jew. My mother was also born Orthodox, as was her mother, and her mother, and her mother, etc. In addition to instilling a strong love of Judaism into my heart, my mother made me proud of being a girl. When I became an official feminist, it didn't even occur to me to merge my religion with feminism. When I did think about it, I didn't think they were compatible. I was so wrong. Judaism is inherently feminist. There are hundreds of examples within its sacred texts of how every human being should be accorded the same respect.

One such example can be seen in the building of the Tabernacle. [This paragraph is adapted from my post about the seventeenth prayer of Shemoneh Esrei.] Soon after the Jews heard the Ten Commandments, God told them to build a dwelling for the Shekhinah, translated as the presence of God. Exodus 35:1 says “Moses assembled the entire assembly of the Children of Israel,” the entire assembly meaning every Jewish person, regardless of gender. The Torah goes on to specify all of the donations to the Tabernacle, listing the men's alongside the women's. This just comes to show that in order for the Shekhinah to be felt, both women and men must be involved.

I know many of you are probably reading and saying, "Well, that may be great that the Torah's all feminist and stuff, but Jews are sexist in actual practice. I thought that women can't be rabbis! And what about that whole Hillary Clinton Photoshop incident?"

Most sects of Judaism ordain women at this point, actually; I believe Orthodoxy is the only one that doesn't. While women cannot serve as actual rabbis in Orthodox synagogues (as of yet), there are many women that call themselves members of Jewish leadership and do pretty much the same thing as rabbis do. One example of many is Sara Hurwitz, who was ordained the first rabba (feminine form of the word rabbi) over a year ago. Other women go by the title Head of the Congregation, Congregational Leader, or just plain old Ms. Other Orthodox women, while not rabbis, specialize in information regarding Jewish law that particularly impacts women.

I still cringe at the thought of the Hillary Clinton Photoshop incident. For those of you living under rocks, a Hasidic paper recently published a picture with Hillary Clinton Photoshopped out. Feminists were quick to criticize the paper. I certainly agree that it was the wrong thing for the paper to do, and do not want to defend it in any way. However, I just want to explain why the paper did this. While all Orthodox Jews keep certain laws of modesty, Hasids keep these laws on a particularly strict level. One manifestation of this is that Hasidic men won't look at pictures of women. I think it's a little silly too. However, this is just how they roll. They didn't Photoshop Ms. Clinton out out of a fear of strong women or desire to hide women, but for the sake of keeping their religion to the fullest extent. I don't agree that it's the way to do things, clearly, but that's why I'm not a Hasid.

So there's my intro post/Orthodox Jewish feminist rant. I love feminism, and I love Judaism; the two are an inseparable part of my identity at this point. I just hope that I can give some hope to every feminist out there who think s/he can't be religious and feminist at the same time.

Shining Stars of Davida: Kathy Hochul and Jane Corwin

2011-05-23T21:22:00.012-04:00

I recently wrote about Natalie Tennant and Betty Ireland, the two women who were running for their parties’ primary elections for West Virginia governor. While neither one won their primaries (and unfortunately, both gubernatorial candidates are pro-life), there are more women running for political office. In New York’s 26th congressional district, two women are running for the recently-opened seat: Kathy Hochul and Jane Corwin.

Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, is currently the County Clerk of Erie County, a position she’s held since 2007. She was born in Erie County and never went far from home, attending Syracuse University for her BA and receiving her JD from Catholic University. She has made use of her law degree, serving as legal counsel for Senator Patrick Moynihan and Congressperson John LaFalce. Her husband is also in the legal profession, as he is the United States Attorney for the Western District of New York.

She started off her public office career as a member of the Hamburg Town Board in 1994, when she helped remove local tolls. In 2003 she was appointed as the Deputy Clerk, and became County Clerk in 2007. As the highest-ranking female official in the county, she has done her best to help small businesses, among other things. Hochul believes that the federal budget must be cut, but not through Medicare as a voucher system; wants to raise taxes for those who make more than $500,000; and opposes free trade agreements like NAFTA, since they have negatively impacted US wages.

Hochul is also pro-choice. In addition, she co-created the Kathleen Mary House, a transitional house for women and children who need short-term housing after escaping situations of domestic abuse. The Kathleen Mary House helps inhabitants obtain new jobs and find permanent housing, in addition to other important steps in creating a new life.

Jane Corwin, a Republican, is a businessperson. Her father created The Talking Phone Book business, and she helped out throughout her childhood; while she was in college, she even served as the vice president of marketing. She graduated from SUNY Albany and earned an MBA in finance from Pace University. She maintained a position as research director for a Wall Street corporation while remaining involved with The Talking Phone Book. After having children, she mostly worked at home.

She currently serves as an assemblyperson for the New York State Assembly, winning the 2008 election by a landslide and running uncontested in 2010. As assemblyperson, she has championed the rights of small business owners, even serving as the Chairperson of the Assembly Minority Manufacturing Task Force. She too wants to cut federal spending and reduce taxes, but supports Medicare as more of a voucher system.

Corwin is the president of the Josephine Goodyear Committee of the Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. While she is pro-choice, she has stated that she would support bills in favor of restricting taxpayer funds towards abortion. She also opposes gay marriage, and voted against a bill that would make it law for incarcerated women to be unchained during labor and birth, in addition to proper medical care surrounding pregnancy.

The election seems to be a pretty close toss-up between the two candidates. I look forward to seeing the results. Both these women are a manifestation of the women’s rights movement; without it, these women’s opinions would not have been heard.

I dub them both inductees into Shining Stars of Davida - strong women and men who make feminists proud.

I also want to say that Star of Davida has officially had over 10,000 pageviews. I’m shocked and honored that my little Jewish feminist blog has gotten so much attention in a relatively short amount of time (since July 2010). Thank you all so much for your support!

EDIT: Kathy Hochul won the election. Mazel tov (congrats!) to Ms. Hochul!

What We Can Do For Feminism

2011-05-19T17:01:00.009-04:00

I find myself in a church, crowded with people dressed in heavy 1800s garb, despite the extreme heat.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal!” I look towards the front of the room and see one of the mothers of the women’s rights movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, reading from a document. I realize this is the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, and that Stanton is reading from the Declaration of Sentiments.

“In the covenant of marriage,” Stanton continues, “she - that is, woman - is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master - the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.”

The room begins to fade again. When my sight clears, I am in a modern-day living room. A woman is lying on the floor, bruised and crying, a ring on her finger. Her husband is standing above her and screeching, kicking his vulnerable wife in the stomach. She keeps her eyes shut, helpless. After several minutes, he stops the abuse and stalks out of the room. A girl about my age tiptoes into the living room and helps her mother sit up, wiping away her tears.

“Why don’t you leave him?” the girl asks, her words barely audible.

“I can’t,” she says, her voice equally quiet. “I have no one other than him, nowhere to go, no money to leave with. I have no freedom, no…”

“Liberty,” her daughter says. “This isn’t fair.”

“Tell me about it,” the abused woman says, laughing hollowly.

* * *

I am transported from the unhappy home back to the Seneca Falls Convention. “He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated, but deemed of little account in man,” Stanton calls out.

I find myself back to my own era again, this time in a school hallway. A group of girls stand against their lockers, ogling at a football star as he walks past them.

“He is so cool,” one of them says. “That he’s so good at football and wins all those games, he’s so tough and manly. That’s so awesome.”

“Isn’t it?” another girl swoons. As she says it, a girl with a stubby ponytail wearing a pair of loose jeans and a basketball jersey passes the group. The girls roll their eyes.

“She’s such a tomboy,” one of them says.

“Does she even own a skirt?” a miniskirt-clad girl asks sarcastically.

“Probably not, she’s so butch,” another says, and the group laughs. I stay silent, horrified at the double standard these girls are applying. How can they applaud a boy for being tough and sporty while they criticize a girl for being the same way?

* * *

After the room finishes spinning and my sight is cleared, I find myself in a conference hall rather than the Seneca Falls Convention. I see the distinctive Betty Friedan at the front of the room, speaking to about three hundred women, and figure out that this is the first NOW National Conference, of 1966. Friedan reads a document out loud. “We reject the current assumptions that a man must carry the sole burden of supporting himself, his wife, and family, and that a woman is automatically entitled to lifelong support by a man upon her marriage, or that marriage, home and family are primarily woman’s world and responsibility - hers, to dominate - his to support.”

As she utters the last syllable, I am brought back to a law office in the present day. A woman sits at her desk, clacking away at her computer.

“Paycheck,” a clerk says as he passes her desk. She swivels around and takes the envelope he offers her, and then continues working. After a few minutes she opens the envelope and looks at the check. She notices the name of one of her male coworkers and realizes she was given the wrong envelope. She also notices that his salary is significantly higher than hers, despite the fact they started working at the same time.

Numb, she goes to her boss and shows him the check. “Why is Mike’s salary higher than mine if we’ve been working her for almost the same amount of time?” she asks him.

He chuckled. “Mike’s got a family to support,” he says. “You’re just a woman.”

“I’m supporting my family too!” she exclaims, protesting his conclusion. “I’ve got two kids just like Mike does!”

The boss laughs her off, ignoring her protests for equal pay for equal work. Enraged and embarrassed, she walks out of his office and back to her cubicle, face burning.

* * *

Once the scene fades, I am brought to a conference hall filled with women. As speakers on the stage rally the crowd, I realize this is a NOW conference in 1998, 150 years after the original Seneca Falls Convention. They read a new Declaration of Sentiments. “We envision a world where women have equal representation in all decision-making structures of our societies,” a woman onstage says.

After the 1998 NOW conference fades from sight, I find myself inside the Capitol during a vote. I scan the rows of congresspeople and see just 71 women from the House of Representatives, 16.4% of the total, while women are 51% of the population.

“This bill is imperative for battered women across the nation,” one congressperson says, giving a heartfelt speech in its defense. Both male and female congresspeople discuss the advantageous nature of the bill. Despite the passion of its supporters, the bill is easily defeated.

“It’s not fair!” one congresswoman says to another as they leave the building after the vote. “If there were more women in Congress, that bill would have gone through. It’s not right. Women are half the population. We should be half the Congress, half of all lawmaking bodies.”

Her friend shrugs. “Tell that to the constituents, not me,” she says.

We have to raise awareness of the issues, donate our time and money to worthy causes, call out inequality and unfairness when we see it, and encourage others to do so, too. We can vote for the candidates who we know will help solve the problems we see as major issues. If we don’t, we are absolutely lost.

Album Review: Half You Half Me by Girls in Trouble

2011-05-16T19:58:00.018-04:00

I pride myself on having eclectic music taste. One of my friends was going through my iPod once and said, “You have the Beatles, Big Time Rush, Bonnie Tyler, and Bowling for Soup? That is so random!” Once I took out a Hilary Duff CD and Killers CD from the library at the same time, and the librarian gave me the most hilarious look. Indie music has never been my thing, however. That is, until I heard Girls in Trouble’s new album Half You Half Me.

Alicia Jo Rabins, Girls in Trouble’s singer, was inspired by all of the biblical women she learned about while studying in Israel for two years. Since she is a classically-trained violinist, upon her return to America, she began writing songs about them, creating Girls in Trouble. Bassist and soon-to-be husband, Aaron Hartman, heard about Girls in Trouble and joined her in the venture.

Girls in Trouble’s sophomore album, Half You Half Me, was released today, and I got the honor of previewing it. Honestly, I was floored by this album. The lyrics are amazing, like poetry set to music. When I was listening to it, I enjoyed trying to figure out who the song is talking about and what interpretations and commentaries it uses to understand the biblical characters and situations.

While the album explores women most people know of (Sarah and Rebecca in “Emeralds and Microscopes,” Rachel and Leah in “DNA,” Deborah in “O General”), it also brings more obscure women figures to light, like Lilith in “We Are Androgynous,” Zuleikha (the wife of Potiphar) in “Lemons,” and Serah bat Asher in “Tell Me.” Rabins also uses commentaries as springboards for her own interpretations; for example, in “Apples,” she uses Rashi’s interpretation of Exo 38:8 that the women donated mirrors to the Mishkan (Tabernacle) that they had used in Egypt to entice their husbands underneath apple trees in order to have children.

All of the song’s lyrics give the women’s perspectives about their stories, as opposed to the text of the Tanakh (Bible), which simply states occurrences as they happened. The songs that stood out to me for the first-person point of view are “O General,” Jael thinks back on Sisera’s death with almost regret, and “Emeralds and Microscopes,” which has Rebecca yearning to meet her mother-in-law Sarah. I absolutely adore hearing from the women themselves, rather than a narrator; it really brings them to life for me. I also love how Rabins writes herself into songs, giving them a more heimish (homey) feel. In “Rubies,” which is about Eishet Hayil, Rabins says lines like “She weaves a blanket / To cover me…And I cannot forget / How her fingers wove the thread.”

All in all, this is a truly beautiful, inspiring, feminist-themed album that I absolutely adore. If you’re interested in hearing the album for yourself, you can purchase it here. If you would like to see Girls in Trouble in person, they are currently on a tour (which I hope to be attending, if my test schedule permits):

• May 19
Joe's Pub
New York City, NY
• May 20
Spotty Dog
Hudson, NY
• May 21
House Show
Providence, RI
• May 22
Beit Ahava Lag B'omer party
Easthampton, MA
• May 25
Private house concert
Brookline, MA
• May 26
Private house concert
Brookline, MA
• May 27
Venue TBA soon
Boston, MA
• May 28
Thorne's Marketplace event space downstairs
Northampton, MA
• May 29
Dreamaway Lodge
Beckett, MA
• Jun 27
Institute for Southern Jewish Life, Education Conference
Jackson, MS

BTW, to all of you who follow Star of Davida, sorry for the recent hiatus! Between Passover, AP tests, and life in general, it's been difficult to keep up. With God's help I'll go back to posting once or twice a week, as usual.